en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:49:45 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Noelle 4
“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.��

Although quite heavy handed with its message, R.F. Kuang gave me Ramiz Rafi Mirza and I’ll always be grateful for that.]]> 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars.

“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.��

Although quite heavy handed with its message, R.F. Kuang gave me Ramiz Rafi Mirza and I’ll always be grateful for that.
]]> 228587642 The long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to Philip Pullman’s bestselling The Book of Dust sequence . . .

‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?��

‘Defend it,�� Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.��

When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her �� part of himself �� in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .

In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame �� made terrifying by fear, power and greed.

As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers �� on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination �� so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.

Marking thirty years since the world was first introduced to Pullman’s remarkable heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights, The Rose Field is the culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.

'Ablaze with light and life . . . To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in technicolour' - Independent]]> 672 Philip Pullman 0593306635 Noelle 0 to-read 0.0 2025
author: Philip Pullman
name: Noelle
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/30
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]]> 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it�� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Noelle 4
Fun, scary, but left a little to be desired.]]> 3.66 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:
3.75 stars.

Fun, scary, but left a little to be desired.
]]> 217245618
In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.]]> 336 Florence Knapp 0593833902 Noelle 0 to-read 4.34 2025
author: Florence Knapp
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213075289 Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir's beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm?

Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off...

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

By his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory--or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life--and love--he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save--or destroy--all that he knows.]]> 544 Sabaa Tahir 044849454X Noelle 0 currently-reading 4.23 2020
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 38374795 318 E.M. Forster 1984295292 Noelle 0 to-read 3.97 1910
author: E.M. Forster
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1910
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 19089 "People are almost always better than their neighbours think they are"

George Eliot’s most ambitious novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community. Peopling its landscape are Dorothea Brooke, a young idealist whose search for intellectual fulfillment leads her into a disastrous marriage to the pedantic scholar Casaubon; the charming but tactless Dr Lydgate, whose pioneering medical methods, combined with an imprudent marriage to the spendthrift beauty Rosamond, threaten to undermine his career; and the religious hypocrite Bulstrode, hiding scandalous crimes from his past. As their stories interweave, George Eliot creates a richly nuanced and moving drama, hailed by Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people".]]> 912 George Eliot 0451529170 Noelle 0 to-read 4.00 1872
author: George Eliot
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
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]]> 11570
A quarter of a century later, the boys are men who have gone their separate ways. Though they still get together once a year, to go hunting in the north woods of Maine. But this time is different. This time a man comes stumbling into their camp, lost, disoriented and muttering about lights in the sky.

Before long, these old friends will be plunged into the most remarkable events of their lives as they struggle with a terrible creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.]]> 688 Stephen King 2226131906 Noelle 0 to-read 3.67 2001
author: Stephen King
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213075365 BOOK THREE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES
An Entertainment Weekly Summer Reads pick and New York Times bestseller!

Beyond the Martial Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger.
Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister's life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent, while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor's volatility to grow her own power--regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender--even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.]]> 480 Sabaa Tahir 0448494515 Noelle 4 4.25 stars. 4.04 2018
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars.
]]> 176443453
It’s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole Māori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he’s sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he’s thrown back in his former lover’s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he’s been trying to ignore—and the future he wants.

Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush (or her possibly pointless master’s thesis, or her pathetic academic salary...) get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won’t stop her mother is keeping secrets, her nephew is having a gay crisis, and her brother has suddenly flown to South America without a word.

Sharp, hilarious, and with an undeniable emotional momentum that builds to an exuberant conclusion, Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings�� misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family. An acclaimed bestseller in New Zealand, Greta & Valdin is fresh, joyful, and alive with the possibility of love in its many mystifying forms.]]> 352 Rebecca K. Reilly 1668028042 Noelle 0 to-read 3.89 2021
author: Rebecca K. Reilly
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Noelle 0 to-read 4.04 2023
author: Amanda Peters
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> 211003729 In Alexandra Vasti’s newest Regency rom-com, a reclusive earl’s life is turned upside down when a stranger shows up on his doorstep with an astonishing proposal—and an inconvenient connection to espionage.

For three years, wallflower heiress Lydia Hope-Wallace has anonymously penned seditious pamphlets. And for almost as long, she’s corresponded with the Earl of Strathrannoch, whose political ambition is matched only by his charm. When Arthur’s latest letter reveals his dire financial straits, Lydia sets out for Scotland to offer him the only salvation she can think of—a marriage of convenience. To, um, herself.

Unfortunately, the Earl of Strathrannoch has no idea who she is.

When a bewitching redheaded stranger offers him her hand in marriage, Arthur Baird is stunned—but when he learns that his traitorous brother has been writing to her under Arthur’s name, he’s bloody furious. He’s content to live alone in his moldering castle, and he has no desire for a provocative, radical wife. (Or at least, he shouldn’t.)

But Arthur is desperate to track down his brother, who’s become dangerously entangled in British espionage, and he needs Lydia’s help. What he doesn’t need? The attraction that burns hotter each moment they spend together. As Lydia slips past his defenses and his brother’s mysterious past becomes a very present threat, Arthur will have to risk everything to keep her safe—even his heart.]]> 329 Alexandra Vasti 125091096X Noelle 0 to-read 4.08 2025
author: Alexandra Vasti
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195790787 In this steamy Regency romp, Lady Selina is determined to find the Duke of Stanhope the perfect wife―the only problem is she's starting to think that might be her.

Peter Kent―newly inherited Duke of Stanhope and recently of New Orleans, Louisiana―must become respectable. Between his radical politics and the time he interrupted a minor royal wedding with a flock of sheep―not his fault!―he’s developed a scandalous reputation at odds with his goal of becoming guardian to his half siblings. For help, he turns to the cleverest and most managing woman of his acquaintance, Lady Selina Ravenscroft.

Selina is society’s most proper debutante, save one tiny secret: she runs an erotic circulating library for women. When Peter asks for her help, she suggests courtship and marriage to a lady of unimpeachable reputation. (Which is to say, definitely not herself.)

But matchmaking doesn’t go according to plan. Peter’s siblings run rampant on Bond Street. Selina ends up in the Serpentine. And worst of all, the scorching chemistry between Peter and Selina proves impossible to resist. For the disreputable duke and his unpredictable matchmaker, falling in love just might be the ultimate scandal.]]> 352 Alexandra Vasti 1250910943 Noelle 0 to-read 3.82 2024
author: Alexandra Vasti
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217643704 An enthralling sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, for fans of Allison Saft and V.E Schwab.

Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal . Odile has always known she’d be the one to restore it.

Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple. Impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the king's enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.

But when the King is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie d'Odette, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of who to trust.

Soon though Odile must decide �� her mission or the girl she’s falling for?

The fate of the Kingdom depends on her making the right choice. . .]]> 352 A.B. Poranek Noelle 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: A.B. Poranek
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
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]]> 213015262 A bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted might hold the key to another chance at love in this achingly hopeful debut romance.

Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.

Her plan: ask her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.

But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.]]> Ellen O'Clover Noelle 0 to-read 4.51 2025
author: Ellen O'Clover
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/25
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]]> 229214163 USA Today bestselling author Catriona Ward.

Room 17 was the last stop on her husband and son’s journey. Eight years after their deaths, Stella books the same room, hoping to commune with their memories. But as she tries to sleep, disturbing and urgent visions blur the lines between reality and the supernatural, and the other side sends a terrifying message.

Catriona Ward’s Night and Day in Misery is part of The Shivers, a collection of haunting stories that reveal the otherworldly terrors all around us. Once you know, there’s no going back. Read or listen to each story in one unsettling sitting.]]> 35 Catriona Ward 1662532806 Noelle 4 3.79
author: Catriona Ward
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:
I went into this expecting to be scared, I came out with clinical depression and an even deeper hatred of men.
]]> 213075405 Elias and Laia are running for their lives.

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars' survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus's will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both.]]> 460 Sabaa Tahir 110199889X Noelle 4 4.18 2016
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:
I should remember in the future that I never trust men and that that lack of trust should extend to cute redheads.
]]> 46041465
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else�� realizing that you are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones�� Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.]]> 368 Dolly Alderton 0062968785 Noelle 4
Like a long episode of Fleabag, but not quite as good. Although it was relatable, enjoyable, and very Dolly Alderton, it doesn’t inspire total confidence in her upcoming adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.]]> 3.98 2018
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:
3.75 stars.

Like a long episode of Fleabag, but not quite as good. Although it was relatable, enjoyable, and very Dolly Alderton, it doesn’t inspire total confidence in her upcoming adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
]]> 220909040
Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow:

He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again be left alone with Byron's charming, underachieving grandson, Laurie.

That last rule has been in place ever since Laurie tried to kill Evander seven years ago, and yet somehow Evander is still obsessed with him.

But when Byron suddenly dies, Evander inherits Hazelthorn’s immense gothic mansion and acres of sprawling grounds, along with the entirety of the Lennox-Hall family's vast wealth. There’s just one caveat: He must choose a new guardian from amongst Laurie's scheming, backstabbing relatives to help manage the estate until he turns eighteen.

Except Evander's sure his guardian was murdered, and Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer before they come for Evander next. Perhaps even more concerning is how the overgrown garden is refusing to stay behind its walls, slipping its vines and spores deeper into the house with each passing day. As the family’s dark secrets unravel alongside the growing horror of their terribly alive, bloodthirsty garden, Evander needs to find out what he’s really inheriting before the garden demands to be fed once more.]]> 368 C.G. Drews 1250376297 Noelle 0 to-read 4.73 2025
author: C.G. Drews
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216522745 Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.

In a perfectly ordinary building, four strangers who couldn't be more different meet for the first time. Their skepticism of this new kind of grief therapy—and the unnervingly perceptive group leader—means they're all wary, but as the weeks go by, they find themselves returning again and again, pulled to work toward healing, even if it means first facing the pain head-on.

A sharp-tongued lawyer who has no intention of letting down her walls, a fragile young woman looking for a place to belong, a musician at the top of his game who's one drink away from losing it all, and an interior designer facing the crumbling of her picture-perfect life—this unlikely group slowly opens up, not only to the possibility of a happier future but to friendship, change, and even romance.

When a shocking revelation reveals the real reason they were chosen for this group, it shakes the very foundation of what they thought they knew. What began as a journey designed to heal turns out to be a much greater test of friendship, strength, and love as they realize happiness is just outside the door...if they're brave enough to seek it.]]> 368 Amelia Ireland 0593952634 Noelle 0 to-read 4.00 2025
author: Amelia Ireland
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56268954 The first in a new historical rom-com series, a handsome earl hires a fake fiancée to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate everything.

The last thing Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, ever wants is a wife. Unfortunately for him, his mother is determined to find him one, even from across the other side of the ocean. So, Hugh invents a fake fiancée to keep his mother’s matchmaking ways at bay. But when Hugh learns his interfering mother is on a ship bound for England, he realizes his complicated, convoluted but convenient ruse is about to implode. Until he collides with a beautiful woman, who might just be the miracle he needs.

Minerva Merriwell has had to struggle to support herself and her two younger sisters ever since their feckless father abandoned them. Work as a woodcut engraver is few and far between, and the Merriwell sisters are nearly penniless. So, when Hugh asks Minerva to pose as his fiancée while his mother is visiting, she knows that while the scheme sounds ludicrous, the offer is too good to pass up.

Once Minerva and her sisters arrive at Hugh's estate, of course, nothing goes according to his meticulous plan. As hilarity and miscommunication ensue, while everyone tries to keep their tangled stories straight, Hugh and Minerva’s fake engagement starts to turn into a real romance. But can they trust each other, when their relationship started with a lie?

]]> 359 Virginia Heath 1250787769 Noelle 0 to-read 3.53 2021
author: Virginia Heath
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213075476 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN-13: 9781595148049.

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.]]> 480 Sabaa Tahir 1595148043 Noelle 4
Choosing between Elias and Keenan may be the end of me. Although if I survived the trauma of the third trial, maybe I’ll be okay.]]> 4.18 2015
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars.

Choosing between Elias and Keenan may be the end of me. Although if I survived the trauma of the third trial, maybe I’ll be okay.
]]> 211004124 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

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

Or at least, so they like to think.

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

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

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

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?]]> 512 Olivie Blake 1250883407 Noelle 0 to-read 3.82 2025
author: Olivie Blake
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 9361589
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]> 506 Erin Morgenstern Noelle 3
Despite the poor pacing issues and severe lack of characterization, there was something about The Night Circus that I couldn’t get enough of. I have several complaints on the technical and storytelling front but for the vibes, the mood, and the descriptive scenery, I was all in.]]> 4.00 2011
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars.

Despite the poor pacing issues and severe lack of characterization, there was something about The Night Circus that I couldn’t get enough of. I have several complaints on the technical and storytelling front but for the vibes, the mood, and the descriptive scenery, I was all in.
]]> 60784759 A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own.

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.]]> 351 Laura Spence-Ash 1250854377 Noelle 0 to-read 4.12 2023
author: Laura Spence-Ash
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203237161
If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably . . . with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love.

When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course.

As their “passion project�� continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark—and igniting happiness.]]> 368 London Sperry 0143138561 Noelle 0 to-read 3.95 2025
author: London Sperry
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75293479
Deeply introverted Catriona lives for her work at Oxford and her fight for women's suffrage. She dreams of romance, too, but since all her attempts at love have ended badly, she now keeps her desires firmly locked inside her head--until she climbs out of a Scottish loch after a good swim and finds herself rather exposed to her new colleague.

Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell's circle under false pretenses: he did not come to Oxford to classify ancient artefacts, he is determined to take them back to his homeland in the Middle East. Winning Catriona's favor could be the key to his success. Unfortunately, seducing the coolly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing...

Forced into close proximity in Oxford's hallowed halls, two very different people have to face the fact that they might just be a perfect match. Soon, a risky new game begins that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake.]]> 432 Evie Dunmore 0593334663 Noelle 0 to-read 3.63 2023
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55053187
1. Acclaim as an artist.
2. A noble cause.
3. Marriage to a young lord who puts the gentle in gentleman.

Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain's peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she's stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions....

When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old desire for revenge, he has no room for his new wife's apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her.

But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything--as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.

Going toe-to-toe with a brooding Scotsman is rather bold for a respectable suffragist, but when he happens to be one's unexpected husband, what else is an unwilling bride to do?]]> 448 Evie Dunmore 198480572X Noelle 3
I love a brooding, angry Scottish man. What I don’t love is a nonsensical plot twist at 91% that gets wrapped up before we hit 95%.]]> 3.83 2021
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:
3.25 stars.

I love a brooding, angry Scottish man. What I don’t love is a nonsensical plot twist at 91% that gets wrapped up before we hit 95%.
]]> 113436 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780375826696 can be found here.

One boy...
One dragon...
A world of adventure.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.]]> 503 Christopher Paolini 0375826696 Noelle 0 to-read 3.96 2002
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 4982 224 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Noelle 0 to-read 4.16 1959
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216698520
Jessamyn St. Germain is meant to be a star. Not an actor who occasionally books yogurt commercials and certainly not a lowly usher at one of Vancouver’s smallest regional theaters. No, she is bound for greatness, and that’s why the part of Maria in the theater’s upcoming production of The Sound of Music is hers. Or it’s going to be.

Jessamyn may have been relegated to the position of childminder for the little brats playing the von Trapp children, but it’s so obvious she’s there for a different reason �� the director wants her close to the role so when Samantha, the lead, inevitably fails, Jessamyn will be there to take her place in the spotlight.

This must be it. Because if it isn’t, well, then every skipped meal, every brutal rehearsal, every inch won against a man attempting to drag her down will have all been for nothing.

Sharp, relentless, and darkly funny, She’s a Lamb! is a cutting satire about the grotesque pall patriarchy casts over one woman’s delusional quest to achieve her dreams and the depths she will sink to for a chance at the life she’s convinced she deserves.]]> 312 Meredith Hambrock 1770417893 Noelle 0 to-read 3.91 2025
author: Meredith Hambrock
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61812308 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River —an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,�� the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.

One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.]]> 303 Dennis Lehane 0062129481 Noelle 0 to-read 4.22 2023
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 21671
Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood.

A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.]]> 416 Dennis Lehane 0060584750 Noelle 5
Man, I love Dennis Lehane and his very Stephen King writing style.]]> 4.17 2001
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:
4.75 stars.

Man, I love Dennis Lehane and his very Stephen King writing style.
]]> 222376906
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]> 544 Rebecca Ross 1250373352 Noelle 0 to-read 4.66 2025
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216052751 Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan--and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren't alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?]]> 384 Marie Bostwick 1400344743 Noelle 4
Set in the 60s, about a book club, female friendships, and revolves around women finding their place in the world. Check, check, check, and check. Marie Bostwick's formula for The Book Club for Troublesome Women first called to me when I saw the cover but the description only furthered my desire to read it. I am such a sucker for a story like this and I'm elated to say that I wasn't disappointed.

Margaret Ryan is our main protagonist but each character had enough presence and development to make it feel like they were all front and center. Although Viv Buschetti and Bitsy Cobb were wonderful characters in their own right, Charlotte Gustafson (and her Samantha Jones demeanor) was my personal favorite.

It was a joy to observe such a deep bond blossom between these four women who couldn't have been more different from each other. Female friendships are always important but especially so during a time when women weren't allowed to do much of anything without permission from a man. Although The Book Club for Troublesome Women is rooted in the past, it is very relevant to our current climate and I believe that made it all the more important.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.]]> 4.15 2025
author: Marie Bostwick
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars.

Set in the 60s, about a book club, female friendships, and revolves around women finding their place in the world. Check, check, check, and check. Marie Bostwick's formula for The Book Club for Troublesome Women first called to me when I saw the cover but the description only furthered my desire to read it. I am such a sucker for a story like this and I'm elated to say that I wasn't disappointed.

Margaret Ryan is our main protagonist but each character had enough presence and development to make it feel like they were all front and center. Although Viv Buschetti and Bitsy Cobb were wonderful characters in their own right, Charlotte Gustafson (and her Samantha Jones demeanor) was my personal favorite.

It was a joy to observe such a deep bond blossom between these four women who couldn't have been more different from each other. Female friendships are always important but especially so during a time when women weren't allowed to do much of anything without permission from a man. Although The Book Club for Troublesome Women is rooted in the past, it is very relevant to our current climate and I believe that made it all the more important.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Noelle 4 4.10 2010
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 210297
The story of how Mary Lennox brought a secret garden back to life has been loved by generations of readers since it was first published in 1912. Now, with this very special deluxe edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett's timeless classic, readers can continue to discover the magic of this powerful and deeply moving story.]]> 358 Frances Hodgson Burnett 0397321651 Noelle 5
This made me feel like a little girl again, surrounded by flowers and magic.]]> 4.21 1911
author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1911
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars.

This made me feel like a little girl again, surrounded by flowers and magic.
]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Noelle 5 favorites 4.34 2009
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> 212808316 Brimming with magic and romance, a young fairy queen must form an unlikely alliance or risk an unspeakable danger destroying all she holds dear in this standalone YA novel from New York Times bestselling author Allison Saft.

It’s been centuries since a warm-season fairy in Pixie Hollow has crossed into the Winter Woods, and while most fear the legends of monsters lurking in the frozen lands, Clarion, can’t help being intrigued by Winter’s stoic beauty. But under the watchful eyes of the current monarch and the court's seasonal ministers, Clarion has little time to dwell on daydreams while the days to her coronation dwindle away.

That is, until reports of a monster crossing from Winter into Spring make their way to the palace. Clarion sees defeating this threat as an opportunity to prove that she is worthy of her new role. But instead of finding a monster at the edge of Winter, she finds Milori, a young guardian of the Winter Woods. Together, they form an unlikely bond as they race to save their lands.

But as their alliance warms to something more, they will discover there is a reason a warm-season fairy and a winter fairy must not be together. And the cost could be just as deadly as the monsters that prowl the Winter Woods.

Discover the origin of the sweeping, star-crossed romance between the queen of Pixie Hollow and the lord of the Winter Woods.]]> 400 Allison Saft 1368098452 Noelle 0 to-read 4.25 2025
author: Allison Saft
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

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

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Noelle 5 favorites 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> 195530544
For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy�� Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?]]> 346 Lyla Sage 0593732421 Noelle 0 to-read 3.91 2023
author: Lyla Sage
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212431593 SCOT ON THE TRAIL!

Brooke Sinclair’s dream of being a published author derailed when she was expelled from the University of Edinburgh seven years ago. Now a ghostwriter, she sticks to other people’s stories. But when her college mentor Mhairi McCallister needs a co-writer for her memoir about Scotland’s most challenging trek, Brooke would do anything for the opportunity—including agreeing to hike the rugged Skye Trail for authenticity’s sake... not knowing the nature photographer who’ll join her is Jack Sutherland, the man who shattered Brooke’s writing career—and her heart.

Between getting sacked from the University and walking away from his family’s tour-guiding business to follow his photography dreams, Jack is desperate to prove he didn’t disappoint his family for nothing. And he can’t ignore his Aunt Mhairi’s final wishes for her memoir. Even if it means acting as guide and storyteller for the one who got away. Even if it means keeping secrets about Mhairi’s health.

As Jack and Brooke head into the solitude of the sweeping Scottish landscape, they’re forced to confront old feelings that haven’t disappeared with time. But can two weeks and eighty miles heal years of unspoken hurt and offer a second chance at the end of the trail?]]> 336 Alexandra Kiley 1335580085 Noelle 3
Scot and Bothered was not everything I wanted it to be but it was sweet, fast-paced, and set in Scotland so enjoyable all the same. Unfortunately, it felt a little insta-love at times and I wasn't entirely convinced by Jack and Brooke's feelings for each other since it seemed to be built on one interaction and never really grew from there.

Miscommunication is a huge no for me when it comes to a plot device and a lot of this story could have resolved itself without all of the miscommunicating - not to mention the seven years it took for them to come back together. I had also hoped for some more banter between the two of them because, when reading a romance novel, I want to giggle and kick my feet. Alas, there was very little giggling and no feet kicking to be had.

I love a second chance romance and I greatly enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the Scottish setting. I wish I had enjoyed every other aspect just as much but this fell a little flat for me. Despite that, I would recommend it to anyone looking to cleanse their palate with a cute, low-stakes romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.]]> 3.64 2025
author: Alexandra Kiley
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars

Scot and Bothered was not everything I wanted it to be but it was sweet, fast-paced, and set in Scotland so enjoyable all the same. Unfortunately, it felt a little insta-love at times and I wasn't entirely convinced by Jack and Brooke's feelings for each other since it seemed to be built on one interaction and never really grew from there.

Miscommunication is a huge no for me when it comes to a plot device and a lot of this story could have resolved itself without all of the miscommunicating - not to mention the seven years it took for them to come back together. I had also hoped for some more banter between the two of them because, when reading a romance novel, I want to giggle and kick my feet. Alas, there was very little giggling and no feet kicking to be had.

I love a second chance romance and I greatly enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the Scottish setting. I wish I had enjoyed every other aspect just as much but this fell a little flat for me. Despite that, I would recommend it to anyone looking to cleanse their palate with a cute, low-stakes romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Noelle 4 4.27 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:
Not life changing but still profoundly enjoyable and affecting - will be thinking about it for some time to come.
]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Noelle 5
I will never recover from this for as long as I live.]]> 4.62 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:
4.75 stars.

I will never recover from this for as long as I live.
]]> 50892338
A flying demon feeding on human energies.

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

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

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

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.]]> 502 Tracy Deonn 1534441603 Noelle 0 to-read 4.32 2020
author: Tracy Deonn
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210411871 A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine

2019: Lucy awakens in her ex-lover’s room in the middle of the night with her hands around his throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister’s house on the coast of New South Wales hoping Jess can help explain the vivid dreams that preceded the attack—but her sister is missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she starts to unearth strange rumours about Jess’s town—tales of numerous missing men, spread over decades. A baby abandoned in a sea-swept cave. Whispers of women’s voices on the waves. All the while, her dreams start to feel closer than ever.

1800: Mary and Eliza are torn from their loving home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship heading for Australia. As the boat takes them farther and farther away from all they know, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies.

A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.]]> 337 Emilia Hart 1250280826 Noelle 0 to-read 3.81 2025
author: Emilia Hart
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176443380
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.]]> 320 Emily R. Austin 1668014238 Noelle 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214152402 A moving story about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination—from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space.

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta’s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

What unfolds is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.]]> 256 Emily R. Austin 1668058146 Noelle 0 to-read 4.07 2025
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212342605 Hungerstone is a thrillingly seductive sapphic romance for fans of S.T. Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood and Emilia Hart’s Weyward.

For what do you hunger, Lenore?

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

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

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

Set against the violent wilderness of the moors and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution, Hungerstone is a compulsive feminist reworking of Carmilla, the book that inspired Dracula: a captivating story of appetite and desire.]]> 336 Kat Dunn 1638932166 Noelle 5 Hungerstone were that it's a perfectly strange mix of Carmilla (its predecessor), Promising Young Woman, and a touch of Gone Girl. Essentially, it's a focus on a woman going a little insane, but one with every right to do so.

I read Carmilla last fall and was enraptured by the story and the characters even with minimal development. Attempting a retelling on a story that has been so influential on literature must have been daunting and is always risky, even just from my point of view as the reader. Kat Dunn blew my expectations out of the water by taking Carmilla and adding layers upon layers of plot and character development.

Expect Hungerstone to sink its teeth into you within the first few lines and not let go. You will be starved for more of Kat Dunn's prose and the addictive nature of watching a woman slowly gain control over her life when everyone around her is holding her back.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.]]> 4.02 2025
author: Kat Dunn
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
review:
My immediate thoughts after finishing Hungerstone were that it's a perfectly strange mix of Carmilla (its predecessor), Promising Young Woman, and a touch of Gone Girl. Essentially, it's a focus on a woman going a little insane, but one with every right to do so.

I read Carmilla last fall and was enraptured by the story and the characters even with minimal development. Attempting a retelling on a story that has been so influential on literature must have been daunting and is always risky, even just from my point of view as the reader. Kat Dunn blew my expectations out of the water by taking Carmilla and adding layers upon layers of plot and character development.

Expect Hungerstone to sink its teeth into you within the first few lines and not let go. You will be starved for more of Kat Dunn's prose and the addictive nature of watching a woman slowly gain control over her life when everyone around her is holding her back.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 223524394
When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies�� side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny.

Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.]]> 496 Mona Awad 1668098482 Noelle 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Mona Awad
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61688564
Mina, daughter of the duke, is grieving and lonely. She has lost all hope of any future for herself in Blumwald. So when the Witch demands her next companion, Mina offers herself up �� though she has no idea what fate awaits her. Stranded with her darkly alluring captor, the mystery of what happened to the previous companions draws Mina into the heart of a terrifying secret that could save her life, or end it.]]> 368 Kat Dunn 1839132957 Noelle 0 to-read 3.89 2023
author: Kat Dunn
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 76715522 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people �� but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve is unraveling with each passing day��

With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights to save herself―and the promise of a better world.]]> 984 Sarah J. Maas 1639731067 Noelle 5 favorites
Kingdom of Ash struck so deeply in my soul that I overlooked the war-born pregnancy, the fact that our protagonists are constantly and unnecessarily losing their powers (Aelin, Dorian, Nesta, Amren, etc.), and that we will never know what Lorcan did.

I’m somehow deeply traumatized and unbelievably happy at the same time.

“I feel like all my kids grew up and then they married each other! It’s every parent’s dream.�� - Michael Scott

No one talk to me for three to five business days.]]> 4.74 2018
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: favorites
review:
This is my first five star Sarah J. Maas - words I never thought I would say when I read and hated ACOTAR exactly one year ago.

Kingdom of Ash struck so deeply in my soul that I overlooked the war-born pregnancy, the fact that our protagonists are constantly and unnecessarily losing their powers (Aelin, Dorian, Nesta, Amren, etc.), and that we will never know what Lorcan did.

I’m somehow deeply traumatized and unbelievably happy at the same time.

“I feel like all my kids grew up and then they married each other! It’s every parent’s dream.�� - Michael Scott

No one talk to me for three to five business days.
]]> 210395729 They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

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

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

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

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.]]> 352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Noelle 0 to-read 3.76 2025
author: Laura Steven
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214195323 Mare of Easttown meets The Outsider in this spine-tingling and twisty debut about a series of disappearances in a small, fundamentalist town and what one broken family must do to remain together as dark forces close in.

After losing her young son in an accident, Rachel Kennan throws herself into her career as police chief of a small Virginia town to avoid focusing on her grief. Meanwhile, her husband, Finn, a washed-up writer whose alcoholism led to the devastating tragedy that changed everything, struggles to redeem himself before his family completely falls apart. Their two daughters are the only things keeping Rachel and Finn together, but the girls have demons of their own.

At the same time, a disturbing crime rocks their tightknit, religious community, sending Rachel chasing leads in a place that does not take kindly to outsiders. When an ominous force in the forest starts calling to the children, fear spawns hate among the townspeople, placing the Kennan family directly in the line of fire. Left with no choice but to rely on each other, Rachel and Finn must come together to face threats inside and out.

A haunting family saga and a disquieting horror debut, Nowhere draws from Appalachian folklore to caution us that true terror is what we bury in our own hearts.]]> 304 Allison Gunn 1668046679 Noelle 0 to-read 3.65 2025
author: Allison Gunn
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52694527 Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of Vigrið.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .]]> 480 John Gwynne 0356514188 Noelle 0 to-read 4.19 2021
author: John Gwynne
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219838767 A new romantic comedy in which a young woman embarks on a summer adventure—and summer fling—in Ireland, perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens and Beth O’Leary. 

Boston has everything Chelsea her best friend, her family, a great job. She’s worked and lived at the same bed and breakfast since graduating college, and she relishes the sense of stability. That is, until she’s informed that O’Shea’s Bed and Breakfast is being sold and she has less than a month to find a new job and apartment. Desperate, she takes a summer gig at the B&B’s sister hostel in Galway, Ireland. It’ll be an adventure, she convinces herself, and it’ll give her some time to plan her Next Act.

As it turns out, Galway has everything Chelsea nonstop rain, no iced coffee, shared bathrooms. Working at The Wanderer might grant her time and a few extra lines on her resume, but Chelsea can’t help but feel like she left her life back in Massachusetts. Her new coworkers, however, are determined to change her mind, especially the handsome and charming tour guide Collin.

Collin and Chelsea strike up a he’ll show Chelsea everything Ireland has to offer, and only then can she pass judgement. Sure enough, Chelsea finds herself warming up to the hostel and Irish lifestyle�� and falling for her charismatic new friend. But as the summer comes to an end, she finds herself torn between the familiarity of home and the tantalizing adventure of life abroad.

An Irish Summer is a heartfelt, transporting story perfect for readers looking for the thrill of moving away from home and the unique magic of summer love.���ձ�> 320 Alexandra Paige 0063316560 Noelle 0 to-read 3.97
author: Alexandra Paige
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215989058
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 240 Sierra Greer 0063312700 Noelle 0 to-read 3.90 2024
author: Sierra Greer
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60003006 On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe.
As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the tantalising prospect of escape.

Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.]]> 104 Jenni Fagan 1846975689 Noelle 5 3.82 2022
author: Jenni Fagan
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:
“We look over our shoulder far too often. We try to look bigger than we are sometimes. At other times we have to be smaller than we are. We do other things. Try to take down governments. Make great art. Keep others. Work without anyone noticing what we do for whole lifetimes sometimes. We hold hands. Drink too much or not at all. We traverse boundaries whilst looking ordinary. We give beauty and patience and science and our talent and our hearts and what was once firm in our bodies - we bestow our lives to this world, most often unseen.��
]]> 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie�� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Noelle 4 4.25 stars 4.58 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars
]]> 61756724
Chaol Westfall and Nesryn Faliq have arrived in the shining city of Antica to forge an alliance with the Khagan of the Southern Continent, whose vast armies are Erilea's last hope. But they have also come to Antica for another to seek healing at the famed Torre Cesme for the wounds Chaol received in Rifthold.

After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child at the hands of Adarlanian soldiers, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need, and she will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries his own dark past, and Yrene soon realizes that those shadows could engulf them both.

Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience to overcome the danger that surrounds them. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, long-awaited answers slumber deep in the mountains, where warriors soar on legendary ruks. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival . . . or doom them all.]]> 663 Sarah J. Maas 1639731059 Noelle 4
Tower of Dawn is Chaol’s ACOSF.

As Nesta and Chaol’s biggest fan, I ask the people who like Nesta and hate Chaol or who like Chaol and hate Nesta to look at both characters and see if there’s any real difference between them. They are both people who carried heavy burdens their entire lives and dealt with them in ways they shouldn’t have - but through hardship, mistakes, and a lot of trial and error, they both overcame their grief and trauma with love and sacrifice. They both had to fight their own parasites.

I will forever refuse to hear a bad word spoken about either of them and I will personally fight anyone who does.]]> 4.32 2017
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
4.25 stars

Tower of Dawn is Chaol’s ACOSF.

As Nesta and Chaol’s biggest fan, I ask the people who like Nesta and hate Chaol or who like Chaol and hate Nesta to look at both characters and see if there’s any real difference between them. They are both people who carried heavy burdens their entire lives and dealt with them in ways they shouldn’t have - but through hardship, mistakes, and a lot of trial and error, they both overcame their grief and trauma with love and sacrifice. They both had to fight their own parasites.

I will forever refuse to hear a bad word spoken about either of them and I will personally fight anyone who does.
]]> 76713323 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what—and who—to sacrifice if she's to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.]]> 693 Sarah J. Maas 1639731024 Noelle 4
I am currently the embodiment of stress and I know it’s only going to get worse]]> 4.65 2016
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:
4.5 ⭐️

I am currently the embodiment of stress and I know it’s only going to get worse
]]> 35297394 Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials in this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge—and how love may be the only thing powerful enough to stop them.

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow��

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters�� return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to save Bo, or save herself.]]> 310 Shea Ernshaw 1481497340 Noelle 0 to-read 3.85 2018
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127305713
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe �� a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution �� who she can't help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

Kristen Ciccarelli’s The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch�� is falling in love.]]> 406 Kristen Ciccarelli 1250866901 Noelle 0 to-read 4.16 2024
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55298324 Who is Mrs. March?

A twenty-first-century Highsmith, Virginia Feito conjures the unforgettable Mrs. March, an Upper East Side housewife whose life is shattered by her husband’s latest novel.

In this astonishing debut, the venerable but gossipy New York literary scene is twisted into a claustrophobic fun house of paranoia, horror, and wickedly dark humor. George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs. March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs. March herself: “But . . . ―isn't she . . .�� Mrs. March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, ‘a whore?�� Clutching her ostrich-leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband―as well as herself. Suddenly, Mrs. March is hurled into a harrowing journey that builds to near psychosis, one that begins merely within the pages of a book but may uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of her past.]]> 304 Virginia Feito 1631498614 Noelle 0 to-read 3.23 2021
author: Virginia Feito
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.]]> 208 Virginia Feito 1631498630 Noelle 5 Victorian Psycho was a wild ride from start to finish. I went in totally blind to the details of the story and I’m so happy I did because everything from the character details to the comedic writing style were unpredictable.

Winifred Notty is now at the top of my favorite psychotic protagonists. She was beautifully crafted in her (very) unique nature and there isn’t anyone quite like her. That could actually be said about each of the characters and that is part of the reason I so enjoyed this book. I love character development of any kind and Virginia Feito didn’t hold back.

Strongly recommend to any of the weirdos out there who enjoy watching a strange governess hilariously terrorize a family and their guests in increasingly bizarre and descriptive ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.]]> 3.62 2025
author: Virginia Feito
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:
Victorian Psycho was a wild ride from start to finish. I went in totally blind to the details of the story and I’m so happy I did because everything from the character details to the comedic writing style were unpredictable.

Winifred Notty is now at the top of my favorite psychotic protagonists. She was beautifully crafted in her (very) unique nature and there isn’t anyone quite like her. That could actually be said about each of the characters and that is part of the reason I so enjoyed this book. I love character development of any kind and Virginia Feito didn’t hold back.

Strongly recommend to any of the weirdos out there who enjoy watching a strange governess hilariously terrorize a family and their guests in increasingly bizarre and descriptive ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 11337 The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways.

With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.]]> 216 Toni Morrison Noelle 5
Not for the faint of heart.]]> 4.13 1970
author: Toni Morrison
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars

Not for the faint of heart.
]]> 61756732
Aelin Galathynius takes her place as queen in the fourth book of the #1 bestselling Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

Celaena Sardothien has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Everyone Aelin loves has been taken from her. Everything she holds dear is in danger. But she has the heart of a queen-and that heart beats for vengeance.]]> 672 Sarah J. Maas 1639731016 Noelle 5 favorites
Queen of Shadows will always be my favorite of the series even when all Chaol and Aelin do half the time is piss me off (lovingly)

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ���
I don’t think anyone will ever love Manon Blackbeak as much as I do - flaws and all]]> 4.69 2015
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: favorites
review:
Updated to five stars

Queen of Shadows will always be my favorite of the series even when all Chaol and Aelin do half the time is piss me off (lovingly)

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ���
I don’t think anyone will ever love Manon Blackbeak as much as I do - flaws and all
]]> 215749072 The Marriage Plot meets The Idiot in this brilliant debut, which tells the story of a young Muslim scholar stuck in the mire of adjunct professorship in Los Angeles who decides to give up her career in academia and marry rich, committing herself to 100 dates in the course of a single summer. By midsummer reality hits, taking her—and her project—to Tehran.

The unnamed Iranian-Indian American narrator of Liquid, A Love Story has always believed herself to be the smartest person in the room. And from an early age, she and her best friend—a poet-turned-marketer named Adam—have turned their noses up at other peoples�� riches. But two years after earning a PhD from UCLA, the narrator is no closer to the middle-class comfort promised to her by the prestige of her fancy, scholarship-funded education and the successes of her immigrant parents. Jokingly, Adam suggests she just marry rich.

But our protagonist, whose PhD thesis compared Eastern and Western views of marriage in film and literature, takes the idea seriously. She makes a spreadsheet and outlines a 100 dates with people of all genders and a marriage proposal in hand by the official start of the fall semester. What follows is a whirlwind summer packed with martinis sans vermouth with the lazy scion of an Eastside construction empire; board games with a butch producer who owns a house in the hills and a newly dented Porsche; a Venmo request from a “socialist�� trust fund babe; and an evening spent dodging the halitosis of a maxillofacial surgeon from Orange County.

Only a tragedy in Tehran and an overdue familial reckoning can alter the narrator’s increasingly manic trajectory and force her to confront the contradictions of her life in Los Angeles. And as doubts begin to creep in about her marriage project, it suddenly seems possible that the eligible prospect she’s been looking for has been beneath her nose the entire time.

For fans of Kaveh Akbar and Elif Batuman, Liquid, A Love Story delivers a modern tale of romance, loss, and belonging like no other. Mariam Rahmani’s gorgeous high-wire satire explodes off the page with verve and originality in this riveting spin on the classic romantic comedy.]]> 320 Mariam Rahmani 1643756508 Noelle 0 to-read 2.96 2025
author: Mariam Rahmani
name: Noelle
average rating: 2.96
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123164836
Scottish Highlands, 1727.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet , move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Then arrives a motley troupe of travelling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack . It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn't known since her father's death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.

Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.

Perfect for fans of Outlander , The Mercies and The Witches of Vardo , or for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft, late renaissance Scotland and Highland history.]]> 306 Philip Paris 1785304518 Noelle 0 to-read 3.90 2023
author: Philip Paris
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 9712 348 Gabriel García Márquez 140003468X Noelle 2 3.92 1985
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:
As a known lover and defender of classics, I was truly looking forward to this one. But I honestly can’t comprehend how a stalker “romance��, in which our male protagonist doesn’t understand the word “no��, became known as one of the greatest love stories of all time.
]]> 76706470 576 Sarah J. Maas Noelle 4
—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ——��

I can no longer deny that I am on the Sarah J Maas bandwagon]]> 4.44 2014
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
Reread update: bumped to 4.5 stars because I just love this one so much

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ——��

I can no longer deny that I am on the Sarah J Maas bandwagon
]]> 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Noelle 5 favorites 4.11 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> 211004179 For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.]]> 352 Neena Viel 1250906326 Noelle 2 hated-this
Listen to Your Sister was one of my biggest disappointments this year. After finding it on NetGalley, and hearing so much hype, I was thrilled to get started. But I could tell within the first few pages that it wasn't going to be the story for me.

What should have been a family drama horror ended up being a convoluted mess where I couldn't understand what was happening the majority of the time and I'm not convinced that the author even understood what she was writing. I unfortunately ended up skimming the last 25% of the book because I couldn't force myself to read the entirety of the rest of it.

I truly wanted to care about these characters and the story but the concept was much better than the execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.]]> 3.26 2025
author: Neena Viel
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: hated-this
review:
1.75 stars

Listen to Your Sister was one of my biggest disappointments this year. After finding it on NetGalley, and hearing so much hype, I was thrilled to get started. But I could tell within the first few pages that it wasn't going to be the story for me.

What should have been a family drama horror ended up being a convoluted mess where I couldn't understand what was happening the majority of the time and I'm not convinced that the author even understood what she was writing. I unfortunately ended up skimming the last 25% of the book because I couldn't force myself to read the entirety of the rest of it.

I truly wanted to care about these characters and the story but the concept was much better than the execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 224070664
For fans of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder and Lisa Taddeo's Animal, Shy Girl is a harrowing tale of girlhood, survival, autonomy, and revenge.]]> 247 Mia Ballard Noelle 0 to-read 3.98 2025
author: Mia Ballard
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36524503 stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as "bone houses," and legend says that they're the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.]]> 335 Emily Lloyd-Jones 0316418412 Noelle 0 to-read 3.99 2019
author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221754310
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story��

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 336 Dolly Alderton 0593686950 Noelle 0 3.68 2023
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 Noelle 0 to-read 4.16 2018
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222377141 A gorgeous, atmospheric debut fantasy that reimagines the Jewish myth of golem in a tale rooted in history, folklore, and sapphic romance—perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, Hannah Whitten, and Naomi Novik.

The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.

As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the curse of the woods has plagued her village, but when the Ozmini Church comes to collect their tithes, they don’t listen to the warnings about a monster lurking in the trees. After a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes a bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the blood-soaked woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only after Malka helps her free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save—and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.]]> 352 Maddie Martinez 1250367751 Noelle 0 to-read 3.84 2025
author: Maddie Martinez
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208841368 Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen.

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

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic-and Emily's knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.
]]> 368 Heather Fawcett 0356519198 Noelle 5 4.5 stars for Wendell 4.14 2025
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars for Wendell
]]> 115559438
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
���ձ�> 347 Octavia E. Butler 153875939X Noelle 5 4.5 stars 4.16 1993
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
]]> 220161342 Striking, visceral, and brutally honest, Rose Keating’s Oddbody is a captivating short story collection that delves into the weirdness of bodies and of existence itself through the voices of social outsiders and outcasts.

In her debut collection, Rose Keating takes you on a bold journey through the intricacies of sex, shame, and womanhood. With ten enchanting short stories, she crafts an emotional masterpiece that challenges us to reflect on the movement and needs of our bodies. Strange yet utterly mesmerizing, Oddbody is a provocative exploration that feels both surprising and sincerely authentic.

In “Oddbody,�� a woman finds herself navigating a codependent relationship with a ghost, while “Squirm�� portrays a daughter tending to her father as he devours himself from the inside out. “Pineapple�� introduces us to a woman who opts to have feather wings surgically attached to her back. In “Eggshells,�� a waitress gives birth to an egg during her breakfast shift. Each narrative in this collection is immersive, bizarre, and deeply empathetic, shining a light on women who dare to defy societal norms and invite you to question the conventions and milestones that determine success.]]> 208 Rose Keating 1668061503 Noelle 0 to-read 3.78
author: Rose Keating
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59688701
It’s 7 a.m. on a Monday morning and Abby Reynolds isn’t where she wants to be. She wants to be in her beautiful loft apartment in Manhattan, drinking a coffee with her fiancé.

Instead, she’s heading back to the childhood home in rural Ireland she swore she’d never return to, with some big old secrets. Namely that she’s suddenly found herself unemployed, homeless, and absolutely 100% single.

She’s feeling all out of luck. Until the first person she meets after she touches down is an absurdly hot guy called Luke, who offers her a lift home. Gazing deep into his sparkling emerald-green eyes, Abby knows instantly that he’s exactly what she needs to take her mind off everything. The perfect rebound.

It’s a flawless plan. Until the next day, when Abby realizes who he actually is. Not just a stranger. He is, in fact, Luke Bailey, aka the boy next door. Luke Bailey who—so help her God—she’s pretty sure she once shared baths with, back when they were kids. Not that she can allow herself to imagine him in a bath now, not without blushing from head to foot.

And judging by the smirk on his face, the same Luke Bailey who’s known exactly who she was the whole time�� And who, like everyone in the village, still thinks she’s a high-flying New Yorker�� who’s getting married next year.

Abby is certain getting under Luke will help her get over her ex. But the truth is stopping her. Can she admit to everyone back home that she’s single and has lost everything? Because, if she wants the boy next door, she may just have to��

The perfect feel-good romantic comedy that will make you laugh until you cry and fall completely in love. Fans of Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, and Emily Henry won’t be able to put this down!]]> 334 Catherine Walsh 1800195664 Noelle 4 3.60 2022
author: Catherine Walsh
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

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

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

'An inventive, utterly unique debut'
Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light]]> 256 Maggie Su 0063358646 Noelle 0 to-read 3.39 2025
author: Maggie Su
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 76705490 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1639730966 Noelle 4
—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ—��

3.5 stars

As of now, this was my favorite of the series and I am sitting with bated breath waiting to read the next one]]> 4.34 2013
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:
Reread update: 4 full stars (all for Chaol)

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ—��

3.5 stars

As of now, this was my favorite of the series and I am sitting with bated breath waiting to read the next one
]]> 215217589 Darkly funny and provocative, this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride follows two unlikely fugitives—an SAT tutor who finds her rich employers brutally murdered and the bound woman she frees from their mansion—an irresistible debut novel perfect for fans of The Guest�����Ի���My Sister, the Serial Killer

A scholarship kid with straight As and big dreams, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she’d be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as an SAT tutor for the super-rich of Los Angeles.

Everything changes one Sunday, when she arrives for her weekly lesson at the Victors�� Beverly Hills estate and, in lieu of a bored teenager, finds the bloody remains of the parents strewn through their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help within a closet. As Evie works to free her, the two are spotted—and within moments, they go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives.

Suddenly at the heart of a manhunt and accompanied by a mysterious woman who refuses to speak, Evie knows the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. But first she’ll have to break down the barriers of her companion, who is quickly becoming the most important person in Evie’s upside-down life. Their breathless spree takes them across the U.S. as developments in the case shock the nation and the press runs wild with Evie’s a gifted kid turned killer. She's now on the cover of every magazine and newspaper—anointed the new Charles Manson, a bloodthirsty ninety-nine percenter looking to start a class war. Evie is finally someone.

By turns cuttingly hilarious and deeply insightful, Killer Potential is a strikingly original debut. A literary novel with the page-turning intensity of a thriller that asks timely questions about our belief in the romance of social mobility, and how the stories we’re sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives.]]> 320 Hannah Deitch 0063356481 Noelle 0 to-read 3.47 2025
author: Hannah Deitch
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43604047
Welcome to Renaissance France, a place of poison and plots, of beauties and beasts, of mice and . . . queens?

Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she’s a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It’s a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail. 

Luckily, Mary has a confidant in her betrothed, Francis. But things at the gilded court take a treacherous turn after the king meets a suspicious end. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper’s nest of conspiracies, traps, and treason. And if Mary’s secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll.

With a royally clever sense of humor, Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows continue their campaign to turn history on its head in this YA fantasy that’s perfect for fans of A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.]]> 512 Cynthia Hand 0062930060 Noelle 0 to-read 3.88 2021
author: Cynthia Hand
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22840421 This comical, fantastical, romantical, New York Times bestselling, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey is “an uproarious historical fantasy that’s not to be missed�� (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

Like that could go wrong.]]> 474 Cynthia Hand 0062391798 Noelle 0 to-read 4.00 2016
author: Cynthia Hand
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 156023123
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 231 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Noelle 0 to-read 3.81 2024
author: Sierra Greer
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219301746 A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from Ashley Poston.

Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA…and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.

When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.

How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?

Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own.

Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.

But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan:

They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process.

Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.]]> 384 Ashley Poston 0593641000 Noelle 0 to-read 4.24 2025
author: Ashley Poston
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213263148 ALL first edition copies will be signed by the author! Signed copies available while supplies last.

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

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

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

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

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

USA Today, 15 Most Anticipated of 2025
BookBub, Most Anticipated of 2025 (and Reader’s Pick)
Readers Digest, 20 Most Anticipated Books This Year
Paste Magazine, Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025
BookRiot, Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Men's Health, 25 Best & Most Anticipated Books of 2025
The Nerd Daily, SFF to Devour in 2025
ŷ������, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2025]]> 544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Noelle 0 to-read 4.54 2025
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 36348525
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.]]> 291 Ling Ma 0374261598 Noelle 4 3.75 stars. 3.90 2018
author: Ling Ma
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:
3.75 stars.
]]> 76703559 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 163973094X Noelle 3 Throne of Glass, it’s possible I may have been a little harsh in my initial review�� But I still stand by my opinion that it’s the worst of the series.

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ————��

I love Chaol. I love Dorian. I especially love Fleetfoot.

What I don’t love is the attempted love triangle that made me roll my eyes every time it was alluded to. But what I rolled my eyes at the most was the “foreshadowing�� - the least subtle, most obvious foreshadowing I’ve ever seen. To put it in Carrie Bradshaw terms: I couldn’t help but wonder�� what Celaena’s real name is and who she’s related to - Elena, perhaps?

After The Assassin’s Blade, this was so disappointing. At least 300 of the 404 pages of this were exceedingly dull. Not to mention the abundance of glaring continuity errors that were somehow missed during every edit and revision. Celaena almost felt like a completely different character (and the references to Sam were too few and way too far between).

I’m hopelessly trusting the famously untrustworthy internet in their insistence that this series is Sarah J. Maas’s best.]]> 4.18 2012
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
Upon rereading Throne of Glass, it’s possible I may have been a little harsh in my initial review�� But I still stand by my opinion that it’s the worst of the series.

—�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ�Ĕ————��

I love Chaol. I love Dorian. I especially love Fleetfoot.

What I don’t love is the attempted love triangle that made me roll my eyes every time it was alluded to. But what I rolled my eyes at the most was the “foreshadowing�� - the least subtle, most obvious foreshadowing I’ve ever seen. To put it in Carrie Bradshaw terms: I couldn’t help but wonder�� what Celaena’s real name is and who she’s related to - Elena, perhaps?

After The Assassin’s Blade, this was so disappointing. At least 300 of the 404 pages of this were exceedingly dull. Not to mention the abundance of glaring continuity errors that were somehow missed during every edit and revision. Celaena almost felt like a completely different character (and the references to Sam were too few and way too far between).

I’m hopelessly trusting the famously untrustworthy internet in their insistence that this series is Sarah J. Maas’s best.
]]> 198563713 From a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past

We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the story’s titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup, and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents�� house to clear it out for sale. Here, the clichés end.

Gabriel has trouble delivering on his promise as the moldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents which seem to mutate every time he picks them up, and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets.

Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—and despite his compromised state (and his more successful brother’s growing frustration) Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story; flirting with the autofictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, Brat crackles with deadpan humor and delightfully taut prose.

Smith’s arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.]]> 320 Gabriel Smith 0593656873 Noelle 0 to-read 3.45 2024
author: Gabriel Smith
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52382796
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shōgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shōgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Shōgun.]]> 1152 James Clavell 1982603844 Noelle 0 to-read 4.42 1975
author: James Clavell
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217927387 From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?]]> 368 Mikki Daughtry 0593533828 Noelle 0 to-read 4.05
author: Mikki Daughtry
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205673392 In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.�� Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.]]> 336 Kay Chronister 1640096620 Noelle 0 to-read 3.59 2024
author: Kay Chronister
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 222361609
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.]]> Rebecca Ross 1250373360 Noelle 0 to-read 4.71 2025
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214240003 From the age of solitude and doublethink.
From the age of Big Brother.
From me, Winston Smith.
Greetings.
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

Starring Andrew Garfield as Winston, Cynthia Erivo as Julia, Andrew Scott as the alluring, mysterious O’Brien, and featuring Tom Hardy as Big Brother, Audible presents a new dramatization of George Orwell’s classic tale. An immersive listening experience like none you’ve heard before, at a time when it has all never felt more chillingly relevant.

Featuring a haunting original score composed by Muse’s lead singer and songwriter Matthew Bellamy and Ilan Eshkeri, recorded by the London Metropolitan Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, the production is directed by BAFTA Award winner Destiny Ekaragha, produced in Dolby Atmos by Granny Eats Wolf, and dramatised by Olivier Award nominated playwright Joe White.

Also starring Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther and Katie Leung.

Featuring Ian Abeysekera, Rachel Atkins, Grace Baker, Joanna Brookes, Clare Corbett, Doug Devaney, Imogen Front, Sam Garioch, Raj Ghatak, Frances Jeater, Mason Moore, Yasmin Mwanza, Harry Myers, Kaelum Nelson, John Sackville, Sienna Sangha, Sam Stafford, Jo Troy, Jenny White, Sarah Whitehouse & Alix Wilton Regan.

This adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 is an immersive listening experience, containing scenes that some may find uncomfortable. Listener discretion is advised.]]> 4 Joe White Noelle 5
It’s insane what a difference a story will make when it’s read at the right time. I didn’t like 1984 when I read it in high school but now that it is so prevalent to the current state of affairs in our country, and that Andrew Garfield’s voice was in my ears for four hours, it has had a monumental impact on me in both great and horrifying ways.]]> 4.22 2024
author: Joe White
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:
America swore Big Brother into office yesterday. Let that sink in.

It’s insane what a difference a story will make when it’s read at the right time. I didn’t like 1984 when I read it in high school but now that it is so prevalent to the current state of affairs in our country, and that Andrew Garfield’s voice was in my ears for four hours, it has had a monumental impact on me in both great and horrifying ways.
]]> 174146852 A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor's murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

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

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

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

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.]]> 384 Allison Saft 0593722345 Noelle 4 3.5 stars 3.59 2024
author: Allison Saft
name: Noelle
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> 35224286 Twin Peaks and writer and director of groundbreaking films like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive - opens up about a lifetime of extraordinary creativity, the friendships he has made along the way and the struggles he has faced - sometimes successful, sometimes not - to bring his projects to fruition.

Part-memoir, part-biography, Room to Dream interweaves Lynch's own reflections on his life with the story of those times, as told by Kristine McKenna, drawing from extensive and explosive interviews with ninety of Lynch's friends, family members, actors, agents, musicians and collaborators. Lynch responds to each recollection and reveals the inner story of the life behind the art.]]> 496 David Lynch 1782118381 Noelle 0 to-read 4.37 2018
author: David Lynch
name: Noelle
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>