Andrea's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 22:17:13 -0700 60 Andrea's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Wild and Wrangled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #4)]]> 216522630 She’s the one that got away. He’s the one that never let her go.

From the bestselling author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which past lovers get a second chance to rediscover what they lost.

Camille Ashwood had always loved a plan. Her latest was her best yet. She was going to get married so she could secure her daughter’s future, get her overbearing parents off her back, and finally start building her own life in small town Meadowlark, Wyoming. Easy, right?

But when her groom doesn’t show up to the wedding, Cam’s life is turned upside down—she doesn’t even have a place to live. That is, until she finds out the house she’s loved since high school is available to rent. There’s only one problem: the neighbor.

Dusty Tucker has spent nearly all of his adult life running. Running from what, though? More like who: Cam Ashwood. But ever since he returned home last year, the girl who was his first, well, everything has become a woman seemingly determined to keep him at arm’s length. And he was okay with that—at least, that’s what he kept telling himself. She was getting married, after all. But now she’s single and living next door. Dusty wants to show her that they can be friends, and that he can stay put.

Despite her best attempts to stay far away from Dusty Tucker, Cam realizes that being close to him is like slipping on her favorite jeans. Easy. Comfortable. That is until past wounds start to open and feelings—both old and new—wreak havoc. Nearly ten years after they first met, Dusty and Cam begin to wonder if their first love can also be their last. And this time, will it be forever?]]> 368 Lyla Sage 0593732472 Andrea 2 romance 4.21 2025 Wild and Wrangled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #4)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Minotaur Husband (Stories from New Eden #1)]]> 202940544
Theo the minotaur is shy, gentle, and kind, and wants nothing more than a human wife to spoil. When Celeste agrees to move in and start a trial marriage, he’ll do anything in his power to keep her happy and safe in a world where a human might make a great meal for another monster.

The only problem? Theo is huge in more than one way—and he knows Celeste isn’t ready for him yet. It will take trust and time to prepare her as they start to build their new life together, and it might just lead to falling in love.]]> 150 Lyonne Riley Andrea 2 monster-romance, romance *yawn* 3.84 2024 My Minotaur Husband (Stories from New Eden #1)
author: Lyonne Riley
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: monster-romance, romance
review:
*yawn*
]]> <![CDATA[A Soul to Heal (Duskwalker Brides, #2)]]> 61927263 All Delora ever wanted was to disappear.

Thrown into the Veil for a crime she committed, Delora was discarded by the world. Although afraid of her oncoming demise, she accepts it as it would be a worldly escape from her problems. She didn’t expect that she would wake up from her deadly fall, nor that the person who saved her would be a Duskwalker.

She’s wary about him at first, but Delora begins to realise there’s more to him than just a faceless monster.

All he ever wanted was a name.

After discovering that humans can be kept as companions, he begins planning for the day he finds his own bride. He still lacks humanity and there is much learn first. One morning when leaving his cave, a human suddenly crashes into him from the sky. Broken and sleeping, he gets to work on healing the woman.

It doesn’t take him long to understand she’s wounded in a way his magic can’t heal.

But will he be able to gain her affections, or will she come to hate him as he stumbles his way through learning about her � and more importantly, himself?]]> 556 Opal Reyne 0645510440 Andrea 3 fantasy, horror, romance 3.5 stars 3.94 2022 A Soul to Heal (Duskwalker Brides, #2)
author: Opal Reyne
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: fantasy, horror, romance
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar]]> 123503956 somewhere—the city of Calcutta—his classmates in school remind him he doesn’t look like them, and must come from somewhere else. When Ru asks his parents, they tell him they are descended from nomads. But even nomads must come from somewhere. The question, forever on the mind of the boy from nowhere, is where.

Ru dreams things that wouldn’t seem out of place in the fantasy novels his father read to him when young. Fragments of a culture that doesn’t exist in this world, but might in another, where sky and sea are one, and humans sail this eternal ocean on the backs of divine beasts.

Ru dreams of dragons, of serpents impossible. Perhaps Ru remembers dragons.

Alone in a city that’s home but doesn’t feel like it, Ru befriends Alice, his neighbor from the nearby Chinatown. As they grow with their friendship, Ru finds that Calcutta may yet be a home for him. But with his best friend starting to realize that Ru’s house and family hide a myriad of secrets, the question haunts him still—where is his family from? Are they truly from nowhere, migrants to this reality? And if so, what strange wings brought them across the vast reaches of impossibility to here—and what is their purpose?]]> 119 Indra Das 1645240878 Andrea 4 fantasy, lgbtq-lit, novellas 4.16 2023 The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar
author: Indra Das
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: fantasy, lgbtq-lit, novellas
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Orc's Rage: A Dark Romance]]> 228275525 This is a dark romance and contains content that may be triggering. Please read the content warnings on the author's website.

Cedar is not just a peasant, but a peasant’s servant, sold by her parents in exchange for a cow. When orcs arrive in her village, she is not heartbroken to see them murder her vicious master. But when she’s caught fleeing, the leader of the orcs, a foul and scarred beast, decides to take her as his own.

Lord Kargorr’s only mission is to destroy humankind. Since the ice melted and the grrosek returned to this plane, he is intent on reclaiming his kin’s land. Taking a human concubine is the beginning of his plan to sow an army of half-orcs—but he doesn’t expect how much this one human would challenge him. Soon, she might become more than just a concubine.

But will Cedar ever truly submit, even when she’s carrying his orcling? Or will Lord Kargorr be the one to bow down when he realizes who she truly is to him?

This is a monster romance that features a kidnapped, captive human heroine, a villainous orc hero who wants to destroy humankind, and their complicated, wickedly steamy love story. You can expect domination, a stubborn heroine, pregnancy, breeding, and bloody declarations of love. Guaranteed HEA.]]> 312 Lyonne Riley Andrea 0 4.00 The Orc's Rage: A Dark Romance
author: Lyonne Riley
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read, fantasy, orcs, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems]]> 1182091
Like the present book’s title, Collins’s poems are filled with mischief, humor, and irony, “Poetry speaks to all people, it is said, but here I would like to address / only those in my own time zone”–but also with quiet observation, intense wonder, and a reverence for the “The birds are in their trees, / the toast is in the toaster, / and the poets are at their windows. / They are at their windows in every section of the tangerine of earth–the Chinese poets looking up at the moon, / the American poets gazing out / at the pink and blue ribbons of sunrise.�

Through simple language, Collins shows that good poetry doesn’t have to be obscure or incomprehensible, qualities that are perhaps the real trouble with most “serious� “By now, it should go without saying / that what the oven is to the baker / and the berry-stained blouse to the drycleaner / so the window is to the poet.�

In this dazzling new collection, his first in three years, Collins explores boyhood, jazz, love, the passage of time, and, of course, writing–themes familiar to Collins’s fans but made new here. Gorgeous, funny, and deeply empathetic, Billy Collins’s poetry is a window through which we see our lives as if for the first time.]]> 88 Billy Collins 037550382X Andrea 3 poetry 4.18 2005 The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems
author: Billy Collins
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paladin's Faith (The Saint of Steel, #4)]]> 228068741
Shane is a paladin with three problems. His god is dead, his client is much too attractive for his peace of mind, and a powerful organization is trying to have them both killed.

Add in a brilliant artificer with a device that may change the world, a glittering and dangerous court, and a demon-led cult, and Shane and Marguerite will be lucky to escape with their souls intact, never mind their hearts…]]> 480 T. Kingfisher 035652437X Andrea 0 3.58 2023 Paladin's Faith (The Saint of Steel, #4)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)]]> 228068705 From two-time Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes a darkly cosy queer fantasy romance with a thrilling murder mystery, set in the same world as Paladin's Grace and Swordheart.

Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard's investigations. It's a peaceful, if solitary profession…until the day when he's called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force.

Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the web of the mysterious killer, it's Galen's job to protect Piper from the traps that await them.

He's just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of all…]]> 288 T. Kingfisher 0356524353 Andrea 0 4.00 2021 Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel, #2)]]> 228068663 From two-time Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Paladin's Strength, the perfect blend of cosy fantasy romance and classic fantasy adventure featuring an order of secretive nuns, a swashbuckling paladin and a strange hive of rabbits.

He’s a paladin of a dead god, tracking a supernatural killer across a continent. She’s a nun from a secretive order, on the trail of the raiders who burned her convent and kidnapped her sisters.

When their paths cross at the point of a sword, Istvhan and Clara will be pitched headlong into each other’s quests, facing off against enemies both living and dead. But Clara has a secret that could jeopardize the growing trust between them, a secret that will lead them to the gladiatorial pits of a corrupt city, and beyond...]]> 448 T. Kingfisher 0356524337 Andrea 0 4.05 2021 Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel, #2)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)]]> 227614059
Stephen, a broken paladin, spends his time knitting socks and working as a bodyguard, living only for the chance to be useful. But that all changes when he saves Grace and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now, Stephen and Grace must navigate a web of treachery and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind.]]> 384 T. Kingfisher 0356524310 Andrea 0 4.19 2020 Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X Andrea 2 fantasy, asd
But the romance, oh the romance, was just so not for me...

I get that Emily and Wendell weren't together in the beginning, but he still had an obvious crush and attachment to her, travelled all the way to this island because he missed her and wanted to be with her, invaded her cabin and her trip, and then proceeded to have sex with some random villager in the room right next to her. Like, what was this supposed to add to the story...And then he randomly proposes a week later?? These were just not the narrative choices for me, and I would have just preferred they stay friends, over the way this "romance" played out.

Quote I liked and related to:
"It sounds odd to admit that I find the company of such a boisterous person restful, but perhaps it is always restful to be around someone who does not expect anything from you beyond what is in your nature." p.226]]> 3.99 2023 Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: fantasy, asd
review:
I loved Emily, her personality, her smarts, and her independence. The set up for the story was also cool, an isolated arctic island, with mysterious, possibly dangerous fae. Color me intrigued and hooked.

But the romance, oh the romance, was just so not for me...

I get that Emily and Wendell weren't together in the beginning, but he still had an obvious crush and attachment to her, travelled all the way to this island because he missed her and wanted to be with her, invaded her cabin and her trip, and then proceeded to have sex with some random villager in the room right next to her. Like, what was this supposed to add to the story...And then he randomly proposes a week later?? These were just not the narrative choices for me, and I would have just preferred they stay friends, over the way this "romance" played out.

Quote I liked and related to:
"It sounds odd to admit that I find the company of such a boisterous person restful, but perhaps it is always restful to be around someone who does not expect anything from you beyond what is in your nature." p.226
]]> <![CDATA[The Hands of the Emperor (Lays of the Hearth-Fire, #1)]]> 43525897 A timely word can stop one.
A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.

Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god.
He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person.
He has never once touched his lord.
He has never called him by name.
He has never initiated a conversation.

One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.

The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy.
The acceptance upends the world.]]> 969 Victoria Goddard 1988908159 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy 4.43 2019 The Hands of the Emperor (Lays of the Hearth-Fire, #1)
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> Role Playing 62687976 From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face-to-face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?]]> 333 Cathy Yardley 1662503970 Andrea 4 romance, lgbtq-lit 3.98 2023 Role Playing
author: Cathy Yardley
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: romance, lgbtq-lit
review:

]]> The Spear Cuts Through Water 102189612 Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

"A beguiling fantasy not to be missed."--Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of The Crown's Game

WINNER OF THE IAFA CRAWFORD AWARD - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, Vulture, Polygon, She Reads, Gizmodo, Kirkus Reviews, The Quill to Live

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

But that god cannot be contained forever.

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

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you--and is like nothing you've ever read before.]]> 523 Simon Jimenez 0593156617 Andrea 5 4.23 2022 The Spear Cuts Through Water
author: Simon Jimenez
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: fantasy, lgbtq-lit, jolabokaflod, best-of-2025
review:

]]> The Book Censor's Library 175678711
The new book censor hasn’t slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish―allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture.

Reckoning with the global threat to free speech and the bleak future it all but guarantees, Bothayna Al-Essa marries the steely dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 with the madcap absurdity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, resulting in a dreadful twist worthy of Kafka. The Book Censor’s Library is a warning call and a love letter to stories and the delicious act of losing oneself in them.]]> 272 Bothayna Al-Essa 1632063344 Andrea 3 3.93 2019 The Book Censor's Library
author: Bothayna Al-Essa
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: sci-fi, translated, reading-around-the-world, books-about-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels, #3)]]> 61100920 Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.

Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.

But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life� pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.

Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.]]> 368 India Holton 0593547276 Andrea 0 3.95 2023 The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels, #3)
author: India Holton
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read, asd, fantasy, historical, romance
review:

]]> Dog Songs: Poems 17707772 Dog Songs is a celebration of the special bond between human and dog, as understood through the poet's relationship to the canines that have accompanied her daily walks, warmed her home, and inspired her work. Oliver's poems begin in the small everyday moments familiar to all dog lovers, but through her extraordinary vision these observations become higher meditations on the world and our place in it.


Dog Songs includes visits with old friends, like Oliver's beloved Percy, and introduces still others in poems of love and laughter, heartbreak and grief. Throughout, the many dogs of Oliver's life emerge as fellow travelers and guides, uniquely able to open our eyes to the lessons of the moment and the joys of nature and connection.]]> 127 Mary Oliver 1594204780 Andrea 4 poetry, art, nature-writing 4.23 2013 Dog Songs: Poems
author: Mary Oliver
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: poetry, art, nature-writing
review:
Dogs are lovely, Mary Oliver is lovely, these poems are lovely, and I had a lovely time reading them!
]]> The Country Under Heaven 217455539 Louis L’Amour meets H.P. Lovecraft in this thrilling western epic about a former Civil War soldier following enigmatic visions that started coming to him after he survived one of the war's bloodiest battles . . .

Set in the 1880s, the story follows Ovid Vesper, a former Union soldier who has been having enigmatic visions after an explosion at the Battle of Antietam. As he travels across the country following those visions, he finds himself in stranger and increasingly more dangerous encounters with other worlds hidden in the spaces of his own.Ěý

Ovid brings his steady calm and compassion as he helps the people of a broken country, rapidly changing but still reeling and wounded from its Civil War two decades earlier. He assists with matters of all sorts, from odd jobs around the house, to guiding children back to their own universe, to hunting down unnatural creatures that stalk the night--all the while seeking his own personal resolution and peace from his visions and the war that changed his life.

This epic journey across the American West with Ovid and a surprising cast of characters blends elements of the classic Western with historical fantasy in a way like no other.]]> 336 Frederic S. Durbin 1685891691 Andrea 0 4.00 2025 The Country Under Heaven
author: Frederic S. Durbin
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, cosmic-horror, fantasy, horror
review:

]]> When We Were Real 214565598 From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.]]> 464 Daryl Gregory 1668060043 Andrea 0 to-read, sci-fi 4.15 2025 When We Were Real
author: Daryl Gregory
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read, sci-fi
review:

]]> Hard Times 2859195 Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around him, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment, a joyful contrast to the dreariness of life in Coketown. The hardship of the workers and the victimization of Stephen Blackpool are set against the exuberance of the circus people in Dickens's much-loved moral tale. Gradgrind is forced to reconsider his cherished system when he realizes that 'Facts alone' are not, after all, enough. (From the back cover)



Hard Times is Dickens's shortest novel, and arguably his greatest triumph. A useful appendix of the author's working notes, together with an enlightening introduction and full explanatory notes, will ensure that this edition becomes the obvious choice for anyone studying the novel. Paul Schlike is Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen.

]]> 299 Charles Dickens 0199536279 Andrea 4 3.30 1854 Hard Times
author: Charles Dickens
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1854
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Overgrowth 217387964 Annihilation meets Day of the Triffids in this full-on body horror/alien invasion apocalypse.

This is just a story. It can't hurt you anymore.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has been willing to listen.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what’s coming, and just refuse to listen?]]> 480 Mira Grant 1250768233 Andrea 0 4.10 2025 Overgrowth
author: Mira Grant
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read, apocalyptic, creepy-kids, horror, sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Corsairs: Adiron (Corsair Brothers, #1)]]> 56376483
Actually, wait.

Yes it is. It’s keffing awesome.

The three va Sithai brothers � that’s us � cruise the universe looking for abandoned ships, treasure, and other pirate ships to rob. Right now, we’re on the hunt for the Buoyant Star, an abandoned cruiser rumored to have a massive treasure inside. The ship’s been found at the edge of an ice field at the far reaches of space.

That treasure? About to be all ours.

But the ship's not all that abandoned. The Star is crewed by a few lonely, attractive human females who are thoroughly grateful at being rescued�

Actually, wait.

They’re not grateful at all.

They’ve set us a trap, and their leader, a beautiful human female named Jade, gives me a smile just before she captures me.

It’s official. I’m in love.]]> 426 Ruby Dixon Andrea 0 to-read, sci-fi, romance 4.11 2020 Corsairs: Adiron (Corsair Brothers, #1)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read, sci-fi, romance
review:

]]> Asunder 195791081 We choose our own gods here.

Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch entity—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.

Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.

And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.]]> 432 Kerstin Hall 1250625432 Andrea 0 4.15 2024 Asunder
author: Kerstin Hall
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read, cosmic-horror, lgbtq-lit, fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gotten by the Gator (Fated Dates)]]> 217340749
Yuri is the grumpiest gator there ever was, but he has a heart of gold, a soft touch, and a hunger for her that reminds her she's worth more than being some rich man's charity case. Aurora is an experience—a messy, still-figuring-it-out experience, but one Yuri is more than happy to play hide-n-seek with. Will she find what she's looking for in the surly but sweet gator, or is she doomed to be a hot-mess express all her life?

Gotten by the Gator is part of the Fated Dates multi-author series and a complete standalone. Want to read more tales of monsters getting matched via phone app? Get the complete series today!]]> 169 Lizzie Strong Andrea 3 monster-romance, romance 4.12 2024 Gotten by the Gator (Fated Dates)
author: Lizzie Strong
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back]]> 28135013
In the aftermath of 9/11 Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life—his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age twenty-six, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm—one of blood, violence, and amazing grace.

Thoroughly intimidated at first and frequently terrified, he experienced on a nightly basis the adrenaline rush of walking into chaos. But in his downtime, Kevin reflected on how people’s facades drop away when catastrophe strikes. As his hours on the job piled up, he realized he was beginning to see into the truth of things. There is no pretense five beats into a chest compression, or in an alley next to a crack den, or on a dimly lit highway where cars have collided. Eventually, what had at first seemed impossible happened: Kevin acquired mastery. And in the process he was able to discern the professional differences between his freewheeling peers, what marked each—as he termed them—as “a tourist,� “true believer,� or “killer.�

Combining indelible scenes that remind us of life’s fragile beauty with laugh-out-loud moments that keep us smiling through the worst, A Thousand Naked Strangers is an absorbing read about one man’s journey of self-discovery—a trip that also teaches us about ourselves.]]> 304 Kevin Hazzard 1501110861 Andrea 4 4.17 2016 A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
author: Kevin Hazzard
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: memoir, non-fiction, jolabokaflod, medical
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Grey Bastards (The Lot Lands, #1)]]> 38257046 421 Jonathan French 0356511642 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy, orcs 4.14 2015 The Grey Bastards (The Lot Lands, #1)
author: Jonathan French
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read, fantasy, orcs
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Morbidly Yours (Love in Galway, #1)]]> 203708983
Lark Thompson would rather get crushed by a falling anvil than stay next to a funeral home during her stay in Galway, Ireland. The vivacious American cartoon creator and animator came here to embrace life, not be reminded of losing her husband.

When Lark learns of Callum’s dilemma and aversion to marrying out of necessity rather than love, she agrees to help the introverted mortician. Although sworn off love herself, she is optimistic that Callum can find The One and secure his inheritance.

But as the dating project progresses and their friendship grows, so does a mutual attraction. The more time she spends with serious, sarcastic Callum, the more she dreads finding him a match. And the more disastrous dates he endures, the more he dreads Lark’s imminent return to the states.

If they think it’s possible to ignore their connection, they’re dead wrong.]]> 336 Ivy Fairbanks 0593851862 Andrea 1 romance 3.89 2023 Morbidly Yours (Love in Galway, #1)
author: Ivy Fairbanks
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon]]> 199798198
The Grand Canyon is an American treasure, visited by more than 6 million people a year, many of whom are rendered speechless by its vast beauty, mystery, and complexity. Now, in A Walk in the Park , author Kevin Fedarko chronicles his year-long effort to find a 750-mile path along the length of the Grand Canyon, through a vertical wilderness suspended between the caprock along the rims of the abyss and the Colorado River, which flows along its bottom.

Consisting of countless cliffs and steep drops, plus immense stretches with almost no access to water, and the fact that not a single trail links its eastern doorway to its western terminus, this jewel of national parks is so challenging that when Fedarko departed fewer people had completed the journey in one single hike than had walked on the moon. The intensity of the effort required him to break his trip into several legs, each of which held staggering dangers and unexpected discoveries.

Accompanying Fedarko through this sublime yet perilous terrain is the award-winning photographer Peter McBride, who captures the stunning landscape in breathtaking photos. Together, they encounter long-lost Native American ruins, the remains of Old West prospectors� camps, present day tribal activists, and signs that commercial tourism is impinging on the park’s remote wildness.

An epic adventure, action-packed survival tale, and a deep spiritual journey, A Walk in the Park gives us an unprecedented glimpse of the crown jewel of America’s National an iconic landscape framed by ancient rock whose contours are recognized by all, but whose secrets and treasures are known to almost no one, and whose topography encompasses some of the harshest, least explored, most awe-inspiring terrain in the world.]]> 512 Kevin Fedarko 1501183052 Andrea 3 4.22 2024 A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
author: Kevin Fedarko
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: travel, environmentalism, memoir, nature-writing, non-fiction, jolabokaflod
review:

]]> The Buffalo Hunter Hunter 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Andrea 0 4.24 2025 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read, horror, indigenous-fiction, vampires
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman]]> 203579088 A memoir of the author's journey from an office job to restoring a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, based on his wildly popular Outside Magazine piece.


Wit’s End isn’t just a state of mind. It’s the name of a gravel road, the address of a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.


To say Hutchison didn’t know what he was getting into is no more an exaggeration than to say he’s a man with nearly zero carpentry skills. Well, used to be. You can learn a lot over six years or renovations.


CABIN is the story of those renovations, but it's also a love story; of a place, of possibilities, and of the process of renovation, of seeing what could be instead of what is. It is a book for those who know what it’s like to bite off more than you can chew, or who desperately wish to.

]]> 304 Patrick Hutchison 1250285704 Andrea 0 4.04 2024 Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman
author: Patrick Hutchison
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read, renovation, nature-writing, memoir, non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soul Searching (Sweetwater Peak, #1)]]> 230422842 New York Times bestselling author Lyla Sage, featuring a rugged craftsman in need of a fresh start and a photographer whose life has come to a screeching halt . . . and the supernatural forces that bring them together.]]> 368 Lyla Sage 0593977777 Andrea 0 to-read, romance 4.83 2025 Soul Searching (Sweetwater Peak, #1)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Enchanting the Ogre's Heart (Trollkin Lovers)]]> 199874395
But then war comes to Tally’s home, and she may have no choice but to come back to Norgren for help. Will he get past his hurt and rejection and take her in?

A full list of tropes and CWs are available on the author's website.

Features a guaranteed HEA!]]> 94 Lyonne Riley Andrea 3 monster-romance, romance 4.00 Enchanting the Ogre's Heart (Trollkin Lovers)
author: Lyonne Riley
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> Breathe In, Bleed Out 221490948 It's a Midsommar night's Scream in this blood-soaked thriller set at a remote healing retreat from horror author Brian McAuley.

Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way... even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.

Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. As the body count rises and Hannah’s sanity frays, she’ll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.]]> 304 Brian McAuley 1464238200 Andrea 0 to-read, horror 4.52 Breathe In, Bleed Out
author: Brian McAuley
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.52
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage]]> 212991742 How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days is a comfort read fantasy romance between a halfling and a goblin: imagine a classic opposites-attract romcom taking place in those cosy scenes in the hobbits' Shire from The Lord of the Rings. Expect magical forests, interfering wizards, lots of home cooking, and maybe even a kiss at the Harvest dance...

When a halfling, Pansy, and a goblin, Ren, each think they've inherited the same cottage, they make a bargain: they'll live in the house together and whoever is driven out first forfeits their ownership. Amidst forced proximity and cultural misunderstandings, the two begin to fall in love.

But when the cottage - and their communities - are threatened by a common enemy, the duo must learn to trust each other, and convince goblins and halflings to band together to oust the tall intruder.

Perfect for fans of cosy fantasy novels including Legends and Lattes, The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Lord of the Rings.]]> 384 Jessie Sylva 035652485X Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy, romance 4.50 2026 How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage
author: Jessie Sylva
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance
review:

]]> Snake-Eater 227881514 In an isolated desert town, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours. A witty horror-tinged fantasy, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chuck Tingle, and Rachel Harrison.

When Selena travels to the remote desert town of Quartz Creek in search of her estranged Aunt Amelia, she is desperate and short of options. Fleeing an unhappy marriage, she has exactly twenty-seven dollars to her name, and her only friend in the world is her dog, Copper.

On arrival, Selena learns Amelia is dead. But the inhabitants of Quartz Creek are only too happy to have a new resident. Out of money and ideas, Selena sees no harm staying in her aunt's lovely house for a few weeks, tending to her garden and enjoying the strange, desolate beauty of the desert. The people are odd, but friendly, and eager to help Selena settle into her new home.

But Quartz Creek's inhabitants share their town with others, old gods and spirits whose claim to the land long predates their human neighbours. Selena finds herself pursued by disturbing apparitions, visitations that come in the night and seem to want something from her.

Aunt Amelia owed a debt. Now her god has come to collect.]]> 208 T. Kingfisher 1835410049 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy, horror 0.0 2025 Snake-Eater
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, fantasy, horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim]]> 39510177
Award-winning photographer Pete McBride, along with best-selling authors Kevin Fedarko and Hampton Sides, takes us on a gripping adventure story told through stunning, never-before-seen photography and powerful essays. By hiking the entire 750 miles of Grand Canyon National Park--from the Colorado River to the canyon rim--McBride captures the majesty of as well as calling us to protect America's open-aired cathedral.
The 2019 Public Lands Alliance Partnership Book of the Year , this is the most spectacular collection of Grand Canyon imagery ever seen, showing beauty from vantages where no other photographers have ever stood. It will also highlight the conservation challenges this iconic national park faces as visitation numbers grow and development pressures surrounding it mount. This photography will inspire and remind us why we protect such a cherished public space.
Proceeds benefit the Grand Canyon Conservancy, and the accompanying documentary Into the Canyon has been shown at the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival and the Aspen Film Festival in February of 2019 as well as debuting on the National Geographic Channel--all in time for the national park's centennial.]]> 236 Pete McBride 0847863042 Andrea 0 4.63 The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim
author: Pete McBride
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.63
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, art, travel, nature-writing, non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sea-Ogre's Eager Bride (Aspect and Anchor)]]> 227781692 Valessa is in danger. Her town has been captured by Aventinian raiders, the women taken, and now she's on a ship destined for nowhere good. But when a terrifying, four-armed sea-ogre pirate boards the ships and demands compensation, Valessa's luck changes.

The sea-ogre demands a bride. It's the perfect opportunity for her to escape.

Valessa volunteers. She tells everyone she's very experienced with sea-ogres and knows just how to please them. She's very descriptive about it, too.

Thing is...Valessa's a liar.

She's never met a sea-ogre in her life. But it can't be that hard to keep one man-slash-monster happy, can it?]]> 248 Ruby Dixon Andrea 0 4.06 2025 The Sea-Ogre's Eager Bride (Aspect and Anchor)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, novellas, monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tempting the Ogre's Heart (Trollkin Lovers)]]> 196915880
In hope of stopping his attacks on the town’s livestock, the villagers choose to send Aliya to him as a sacrifice. Grunagg the ogre lives a mostly peaceful, quiet life in his cave—until a human he never asked for is dropped on his doorstep.

Grunagg wants nothing to do with her, but when Aliya finds herself at the mercy of a bear, he feels duty-bound to save her. Now he has a responsibility to help her recover from her wounds, and teach her to survive on her own so they can finally part ways.

But by the time she’s trained well enough to leave, will they want to say goodbye?]]> 104 Lyonne Riley Andrea 3 monster-romance, romance 4.12 Tempting the Ogre's Heart (Trollkin Lovers)
author: Lyonne Riley
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> Under Loch and Key 209455891 A woman discovers that not all monsters are her enemy—the opposite, in fact—in this new paranormal romance by Lana Ferguson, author of The Fake Mate.

Keyanna “Key� MacKay is used to secrets. Raised by a single father who never divulged his past, it’s only after his death that she finds herself thrust into the world he’d always refused to speak of. With just a childhood bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life and the name of her estranged grandmother to go off of, Key has no idea what she’ll find in Scotland. But repeating her father’s mistakes and being rescued by a gorgeous, angry Scotsman—who thinks she’s an idiot—is definitely the last thing she expects.

Lachlan Greer has his own secrets to keep, especially from the bonnie lass he pulls to safety from the slippery shore—a lass with captivating eyes and the last name he’s been taught not to trust. He’s looking for answers as well, and Key’s presence on the grounds they both now occupy presents a real problem. It’s even more troublesome when he gets a front row seat to the lukewarm welcome Key receives from her family; the strange powers she begins to develop; and the fierce determination she brings to every obstacle in her path. Things he shouldn’t care about, and someone he definitely doesn’t find wildly attractive.

When their secrets collide, it becomes clear that Lachlan could hold the answers Keyanna is after—and that she might also be the key to uncovering his. Up against time, mystery, and a centuries old curse, they’ll quickly discover that magic might not only be in fairy tales, and that love can be a real loch-mess.]]> 415 Lana Ferguson 0593816862 Andrea 3 3.70 2024 Under Loch and Key
author: Lana Ferguson
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: fantasy, romance, set-in-scotland
review:

]]> The Starving Saints 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters� or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Andrea 0 4.05 2025 The Starving Saints
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, fantasy, historical, horror, medieval
review:

]]> Haven (Kindled, #1) 58870280
Maybe I would be different too.

Maybe I wouldn’t need his hungry eyes and demanding hands in the dark.

But this is how we are together every time.

He's not my friend or my boyfriend, but sometimes I go to his room after the sun goes down. I need to. Not for sweet words or soft kisses but because his arms, like the flickering light of that one candle, are the only things that can hold back the night.

Haven is a short, steamy post-apocalyptical romance set in the near future after a global catastrophe and includes some violent content and (secondary) character death.]]> 169 Claire Kent Andrea 0 3.86 2021 Haven (Kindled, #1)
author: Claire Kent
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read, apocalyptic, romance, sci-fi
review:

]]> I'll Keep Her Safe 227850098 Chemistry sizzles when a determined business grad and brooding, tattooed landscaper surrender to their forbidden attraction in this steamy and heartfelt romance about protecting the ones we love.

Poppy

Crushing on your best friend’s dad? Bad idea. Moving in with him? Even worse.

But Wyatt Mathers is unlike any dad I’ve ever he’s tattooed, owns a motorcycle, and is dangerously handsome. Oh, and he’s hell-bent on protecting me from my toxic ex.

To him, I’m his daughter’s best friend. But to me? He’s the only person who’s ever made me feel safe and seen. Living under his roof, I’m falling harder than I ever thought possible� and there’s no way I can stop.

Wyatt

The moment we met, I noticed my daughter’s best friend and roommate. I knew it was wrong, and I’ve kept my distance ever since.

But when Bailey moves out, leaving Poppy with nowhere to go, I can’t turn my back on her. Especially not with her psycho ex-boyfriend lurking in the shadows.

Having her here feels natural. Too natural. Watching her cook in my kitchen and settle into my home makes me realize I don’t want her to leave.

My only goal is to keep her safe. But what happens when the real threat is� me? Here’s what you can expect from I'll Keep Her

� Forbidden, steamy romance

� Best friend’s dad/daughter’s BFF

� Age gap (she's 25, he's 42)

� Tattooed landscaper/biker hero

� Business-grad-turned-chef heroine

� Toxic stalker ex boyfriend

� Touch her and die

� Reluctant cat daddy

� Roommates to lovers

� No third act breakup

� Dual POV

� Interconnected standalone

Please this book contains cursing and on-page sex, including dirty talk. The heroine confronts her narcissistic ex-boyfriend, who attempts to damage her career and relationship throughout the story, and we see her process the aftereffects of emotional and financial abuse. There is the death of a minor character, off-page. Additionally, there is
an age gap of seventeen years between the main characters, with an older man/younger woman dynamic (the heroine is
25, the hero 42). It is intended for readers 18 years and older.]]> Jen Morris 1738615340 Andrea 4 romance
She’s got a great knack for dialogue, making her characters feel real and mature, and the spice is both sweet and naughty.

I absolutely loved the set-up and start of this book, the forced proximity and themes of following your passion were an excellent way for our couple to get to know each other and explore their growing attraction.

I also really appreciate the emotional depth and the way these books lack excessive angst and miscommunication tropes and I will definitely be reading more books in this series!


Disclaimer: I received a free e-arc of this book.]]> 4.10 I'll Keep Her Safe
author: Jen Morris
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: romance
review:
I really enjoy Jen Morris’s romances and I think this might be my next fave in the series after the first book!

She’s got a great knack for dialogue, making her characters feel real and mature, and the spice is both sweet and naughty.

I absolutely loved the set-up and start of this book, the forced proximity and themes of following your passion were an excellent way for our couple to get to know each other and explore their growing attraction.

I also really appreciate the emotional depth and the way these books lack excessive angst and miscommunication tropes and I will definitely be reading more books in this series!


Disclaimer: I received a free e-arc of this book.
]]> One Bed 204634505 Bestselling romance author Bea Williams needs a vacation.

And her godmother’s snug Greek island retreat is the perfect place to use as an escape from her writer’s block.

Until she finds she’s going to have to share her idyllic one bed cottage with him � Gibson Caddell, one time childhood friend and a great big, drop-dead-gorgeous red flag.

As the sun sets on Santorini, Bea’s thoughts soon turn to something much more pressing � there’s two of them. And only one bed…]]> 304 Joss Wood 0008702357 Andrea 0 to-read, romance 3.67 One Bed
author: Joss Wood
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> Woodworm 195607710 The house breathes.

The house contains bodies and secrets.

The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.

It was built by a small-time hustler as a means of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can’t leave.

They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.

Layla Martínez’s eerie debut novel Woodworm is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun.]]> 124 Layla Martínez Andrea 0 3.87 2021 Woodworm
author: Layla MartĂ­nez
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read, horror, reading-around-the-world
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon]]> 728348 248 Colin Fletcher 0679723064 Andrea 0 3.94 1967 The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon
author: Colin Fletcher
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read, memoir, nat-geo-100-great-adventure-books, non-fiction, travel
review:

]]> The Beauty 23250725
The story shall be told to preserve the past. History has gone back to its aural roots and the power of words is strong. Meet Nate, the storyteller, and the new secrets he brings back from the woods. William rules the group with youth and strength, but how long can that last? And what about Uncle Ted, who spends so much time out in the woods?

Hear the tales, watch a myth be formed. For what can man hope to achieve in a world without women? When the past is only grief how long should you hold on to it? What secrets can the forest offer to change it all?

Discover the Beauty.]]> 99 Aliya Whiteley 1907389237 Andrea 5 3.51 2014 The Beauty
author: Aliya Whiteley
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: apocalyptic, magical-realism, novellas, fungi, horror, favorites
review:

]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 2542808 A science fiction novel of burning, dark intensity.

Two months since the stars fell.

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer.]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765319640 Andrea 5 sci-fi, vampires, favorites 3.99 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/30
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: sci-fi, vampires, favorites
review:

]]> We Need to Do Something 53412346
A family on the verge of self-destruction finds themselves isolated in their bathroom during a tornado warning.

Includes an introduction from Sean King O'Grady (director of the film adaptation) and a brand-new afterword from Max Booth III.

“Don't look now but Max Booth III is one of the best in horror, and he's only getting started.�
—Josh Malerman, author of BIRD BOX and MALORIE

“A confident and singular descent into domestic nihilism that’s as wildly fun as it is deeply disturbing.�
—Matt Barone, Tribeca Film Festival

“Works like a Pandora’s box of horror.�
—Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

“Unhinged, chaotic, and abounding with occult chills.�
—Chad Collins, Dread Central]]> 123 Max Booth III Andrea 3 horror, novellas 3.52 2020 We Need to Do Something
author: Max Booth III
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: horror, novellas
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Barbarian Mine (Ice Planet Barbarians, #4)]]> 26570784
What I didn't anticipate? That there'd be a savage stranger waiting nearby, watching me. And when he takes me captive, the unthinkable happens... I resonate to him.

Resonance means mating, and children... but I don't know if this guy's ever been around anyone before. He's truly a barbarian in all ways, right down to clubbing me over the head and claiming me as his own.

So why is it that I crave his touch and hunger for more?]]> 182 Ruby Dixon 1519196180 Andrea 3 3.74 2015 Barbarian Mine (Ice Planet Barbarians, #4)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians, #3)]]> 60629205 The third novel in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, an international publishing phenomenon—now in a special print edition with bonus materials and an exclusive epilogue!

Kira plans on remaining single on this alien planet—she doesn’t want a mate anyway. At least, that’s what she tells herself. But when Aehako comes along, everything changes. . . .

As one of the humans stranded on the ice planet, I should be happy that I have a new home. Human women are treasured here, and one alien in particular has made it clear that he’s interested in me. It’s hard to push away the sexy, flirtatious Aehako when I long to grab him by his horns and insist he take me to his furs.

But I’ve got a terrible secret—a few of them, actually. I’m convinced that Aehako can never love me if he knows the full truth. More worryingly, the aliens who abducted me are back, and thanks to the translator in my ear, they can find me. My presence here endangers everyone . . . but can I give up my new life and the man I desire more than anything? And will he even want me if he knows my secrets?]]> 336 Ruby Dixon 0593548965 Andrea 2 3.71 2015 Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians, #3)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: monster-romance, romance, sci-fi
review:
Just ok and my least fave of the series that I’ve read so far. I was pretty bored throughout and didn’t connect to either of these characters.
]]> <![CDATA[My Blood Is Yours (The Summoning #1)]]> 228552296 This novella features explicit *spicy* content and is intended for audiences 18+ only.

“Look at what you do to me, Elowen. No one holds a candle to you. Even in this hellish place, you bring me to heights I’ve never known.�
____

A glistening bead of sweat trails between the gloriously sculpted plains of his chest as he gifts me a crooked grin.

“You are the embodiment of perfection, Elowen.�

A grin curls my lips as my gaze holds his and my hands wrap around him.

“Such a good boy.�
____

The Summoning (sum-mon-ning) A pivotal life event experienced by all daemon males or dominants when they and their soulbound come of age. This Summoning urges them—mind, body, and spirit—to unite. Intense side effects may include, but are not limited heightened emotions, uncontrollable arousal, dizziness, dream walking, an increase in fluids, and an insatiable thirst and hunger for their soulbound in a variety of intimate ways that cannot be listed here (please reference the book). Some effects may be painful.

Sariel
Born in Hell, I have waited millennia for my soulbound. Now, after crossing realms to find her, the only things standing in my way are a mad doctor, a dungeon cell, and magic-suppressing shackles. Anyone who enters my cell puts their life in my merciless hands.

That is until Elowen—a delicate human female—is assigned to my care. I would know even by scent alone that she belongs to me. The moment I break free of these manacles, I will rightfully claim her as mine.

Elowen
I’ve dreamed of Sariel for three years. I know him as intimately as I know myself. So when Dr. Forsythe assigns me to care for the daemon, I’m not afraid of the massive, horned, and winged male—I’m exhilarated. Because I know, without a doubt, he is mine.

Tropes
Spicy & sweet meets gothic romantasy
Fated mates
Captured by a mad scientist
Bondage
MMC In shackles
FMC tasked w/ his care (including obtaining his s3m3n samples)
Touch him/her & become a c0rpse
HEA guaranteed
Traverses the realms to find her
Cinnamon roll only for her
Fast burn
Dom/sub dynamics
Dual POV
Unique world & magic system
Enough k!nk & spice to set your undergarments aflame
Morally grey MCs
All the banter
All the feels

Trigger Warnings
Copious amounts of s3minal fuid
Captivity (of the MMC)
Violence & gore
Highly explicit descriptions of numerous sexual acts
C_m play
Cr3am p3s
Gagging
Knotting
Claiming/marking
Dom/sub/switch dynamics
Discussion of mental health
Discussion of the death of a parent]]> 224 Chiara Forestieri Andrea 0 3.67 2025 My Blood Is Yours (The Summoning #1)
author: Chiara Forestieri
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Orb of Cairado (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1.1)]]> 221288099 The Goblin Emperor, The Orb of Cairado offers an unlikely hero in historian Ulcetha Zhorvena.

Five years ago, Ulcetha was studying at the University of Cairado, working his way toward becoming a scholar first-class in the Department of History. Then a prize artifact disappeared and Ulcetha, deftly framed, was kicked out. Now he works for a crooked importer, using his knowledge of elven history to write provenances for the fake artifacts Salathgarad sells.

When the airship Wisdom of Choharo explodes, killing the emperor and three of his four sons, it takes with it Ulcetha's best friend, Mara Lilana. But Mara leaves behind a puzzle--the one thing Ulcetha can't resist. And the puzzle leads Ulcetha back to the Department of History... and maybe the chance to clear his name.]]> 120 Katherine Addison 1645242137 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy 4.09 2025 The Orb of Cairado (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1.1)
author: Katherine Addison
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> We Used to Live Here 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 Andrea 4 horror 3.67 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: horror
review:
I’m so happy that I really liked this one! I have been slumping hard and I think I read the first 20 pages over 4 days (yikes!) but I stuck with it cause I had a feeling I was going to like it, and boy was I right! I finished the remaining 300 pages in two sittings and was hooked and creeped out for much of that time! I really liked the twists and turns this book takes and I was legit scared during some parts, which is not usual for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Lost and Lassoed (Rebel Blue Ranch, #3)]]> 207611511 She thrives in chaos. He prefers routine. The only thing they have in common? How much they hate each other.

From the author of Done and Dusted and Swift and Saddled, the highly anticipated next book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series, a small town romance in which enemies turn to lovers when they're forced to work together during one hot summer.

Teddy Andersen doesn’t have a plan. She’s never needed one before. She’s always been more of a go with the flow type of girl, but for some reason, the flow doesn’t seem to be going her way this time.

Her favorite vintage suede jacket has a hole in it, her sewing machine is broken, and her best friend just got engaged. Suddenly, everything feels like it’s starting to change. Teddy’s used to being a leader, but now she feels like she’s getting left behind, wondering if life in the small town she loves is enough for her anymore.

Gus Ryder has a lot on his plate. He doesn’t know what’s taking care of his family’s 8,000 acre ranch, or parenting his spunky six-year-old daughter, who is staying with him for the summer. Gus has always been the dependable one, but when his workload starts to overwhelm him, he has to admit that he can’t manage everything on his own. He needs help.

His little sister’s best friend, the woman he can’t stand, is not who he had in mind. But when no one else can step in, Teddy's the only option he’s got. Teddy decides to use the summer to try and figure out what she wants out of life. Gus, on the other hand, starts to worry that he’ll never find what he needs.

Tempers flare, tension builds, and for the first time ever, Gus and Teddy start to see each other in a different light. As new feelings start to simmer below the surface, they must decide whether or not to act on them. Can they keep things cool? Or will both of them get burned?]]> 313 Lyla Sage 0593732456 Andrea 4 romance 4.32 2024 Lost and Lassoed (Rebel Blue Ranch, #3)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mined in Magic (Falling for Fables, #3)]]> 210223948
But someone else puts forth her name. She has no choice but to take part, especially when she learns the champion will win the Everstone—a gemstone with enough magic to break her curse.

At long last, Astrid's freedom is within reach.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple. An infuriating shadow demon joins the competition, dead set on winning the Everstone himself. He'll do whatever it takes to succeed, particularly if it involves pilfering Astrid's cakes or tormenting her until she gives up hope.

But when the Everstone goes missing, they agree to join forces to track it down. And deep within the mines, they discover something in each other that is far more powerful than magic.

Mined in Magic is a stand-alone cozy romantasy set in the whimsical world of Falling for Fables.]]> 342 Jenna Wolfhart Andrea 2 fantasy, romance 3.87 2024 Mined in Magic (Falling for Fables, #3)
author: Jenna Wolfhart
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: fantasy, romance
review:
I think I’m calling it quits with this series. The plots and covers always pull me in, but every book I read further into the series keeps getting worse. This book was a shallow and ridiculous mess. There were a few good moments, but it was mostly full of eye-rolling cheese and exasperating conveniences for the characters. The romance and chemistry were lacking to boot. 1.5 stars rounded up to a 2, cause I’m generous like that, lol.
]]> Just Our Luck 215361843 A lottery ticket + donuts = love in this steamy new fake dating romance from beloved author Denise Williams.

Who needs love? Not Sybil Sweet. After years of bouncing from job to job in search of something that feels right and from man to man in search of something special, Sybil is embracing her role as the directionless, floundering member of her family. All she really wants now is a little financial stability and carb comfort. Lucky for her, she’s got just enough in the bank to buy a lottery ticket, and the late-night donut store is open.

Kiran Anderson abandoned his dreams of becoming a doctor to take over running his family’s bakery, and after two years of fighting a losing battle to save the place, he’s exhausted and broke. But when a whirlwind of a woman sweeps in late one night, flirty energy gives way to more…until she runs out the next morning, leaving behind her winning lottery ticket.

Lucky for Kiran, his attempt to return the ticket looks like a grand romantic gesture and goes viral, sending sales through the roof. In an effort to keep the store afloat and to get Sybil’s family off of her back, they agree to fake a relationship for three months. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars, finding each other might end up being the sweetest bit of luck for both of them.]]> 400 Denise Williams 0593641434 Andrea 0 to-read, romance 3.50 2025 Just Our Luck
author: Denise Williams
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> The Enchanted Greenhouse 218470985 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel set in the world of The Spellshop! Follow her to The Enchanted Greenhouse, a cozy fantasy nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love.

Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.

This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.

But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.

This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst 1250324637 Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy, romance 4.30 2025 The Enchanted Greenhouse
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance
review:

]]> Hemlock & Silver 217582926 From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White� steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.

Not to die, but to save� seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.

But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.

Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.

Or it might be the thing that kills them all.]]> 368 T. Kingfisher 125034204X Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy 4.13 2025 Hemlock & Silver
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Someone You Can Build a Nest In]]> 211097573
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.

However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.

Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.]]> 312 John Wiswell 1529431344 Andrea 2 fantasy, horror, lgbtq-lit 3.82 2024 Someone You Can Build a Nest In
author: John Wiswell
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: fantasy, horror, lgbtq-lit
review:

]]> Mate (Bride, #2) 228256271 A Human hybrid and an Alpha Were claw against the bonds of fate in the highly anticipated companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Bride.

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…]]> 432 Ali Hazelwood 0593955013 Andrea 0 4.44 2025 Mate (Bride, #2)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read, werewolf-novels, romance
review:

]]> Katabasis 210223811 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]> 400 R.F. Kuang Andrea 0 to-read 4.04 2025 Katabasis
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)]]> 61111295 In this heart-fluttering romance by Kristina Forest, a shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he's the obscure author she's been corresponding with.

Shy, bookish, and admittedly awkward, Lily Greene has always felt inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family, who strive for Black excellence. She dreams of becoming an editor of children's books but has been frustratingly stuck in the nonfiction division for years without a promotion in sight. Lily finds escapism in her correspondences with her favorite fantasy author, and what begins as two lonely people connecting over e-mail turns into a tentative friendship and possibly something else Lily won't let herself entertain--until he ghosts her.

Months later, still crushed but determined to take charge of her life, Lily seeks a date to her sister's wedding. And the perfect person to help her is Nick Brown, her charming, attractive new neighbor, whom she feels drawn to for unexplainable reasons. Little does she know that Nick is an author--her favorite fantasy author.

Nick, who has his reasons for using a pen name and for pushing people away, soon realizes that the beautiful, quiet woman from down the hall is the same Lily he fell in love with over e-mail months ago. Unwilling to complicate things even more between them, he agrees to set her up with someone else, though this simple favor between two neighbors is anything but--not when he can't get her off his mind.]]> 403 Kristina Forest 0593546431 Andrea 0 to-read, romance 3.80 2023 The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)
author: Kristina Forest
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> A Tale of Mirth & Magic 222139761 A maker of magical jewelry finds herĚýlife turned upside down when she ends up on the run with a half-giant in this spicy and cozy fantasy romanceâ€�perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Spellshop.
Elikki may not have a family, but she has her fierce independence, boundless charm, and enough talent as a jewelry artisan to make a living on the road. Unfortunately for some, she also can’t yet manage to control her chaotic magic. . . and her temper.ĚýSweet, soft Barra lives a quiet life with his mas and three sisters, managing the books for his family’s business. All he wants is to blend in and not make waves—a bit tricky, as a nearly eight-foot-tall purple half-giant.Ěý
Ěý
When Elikki lands in hot water after dealing with a particularly rude customer,ĚýBarra finds himself helping her flee the constables. With a bounty on her back—and a severe crush forming on his end—they decide to travel together to the next town. So begins a journey filled with cozy inns, delicious meals, heaps of excellent sex, and a sprinkling of danger.Ěý As their adventures bring them closer together and the threat of capture risesĚýthey find themselves changing in surprising ways. He’s given up on finding love. She’s always refused to try. But traveling together, they may discover unexpected, powerful romance and stronger self-identities—if the bounty hunters don’t get them first.Ěý]]> 288 Kristen Vale 1538771829 Andrea 0 3.90 A Tale of Mirth & Magic
author: Kristen Vale
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read, fantasy, monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Saw Her First (Forbidden on Fruit Street, #2)]]> 218688309
Daisy

I never planned on being a virgin at twenty-five, stuck in a dead-end job. And I definitely didn’t plan to fall for Weston, the married hottie in a suit who likes my daily coffee art. At least I think he does. He doesn’t smile much.

Then I meet Jesse. He’s charming and more than happy to relieve me of my V-card, but is he really the one? My world turns upside down when I learn Jesse's father is Weston, my secret crush. Even more surprising? Weston isn't married.

And that changes everything.

Weston

After losing my wife three years ago, I’ve lived in a haze of pain and grief, made worse by my son Jesse’s refusal to talk to me. The only light in the darkness is Daisy, the beautiful barista at my local coffee shop. There’s a connection between us despite our age difference, and I intend to make her mine—until Jesse introduces Daisy as his girlfriend.

Seeing them together drives me crazy, especially as I watch him take her for granted. The more time I spend around her, the more I want her for myself, but it might cost me my son�

Even if I saw her first.


Here’s what you can expect from I Saw Her First:
� forbidden romance (ex-boyfriend’s dad/son’s ex-girlfriend)
� age gap (she’s 25, he’s 43)
� virgin heroine
� widowed hero
� “You’re mine�
� dirty-talking MMC
� no cheating
� Brooklyn Heights & beach house setting
� interconnected standalone
� dual POV

Please note: this book is a steamy, open-door romance, told in dual first person point of view. It contains cursing and on-page sex, including dirty talk. There are discussions of grief, and there is on-page marijuana use (once, by a side character). Additionally, the heroine is a virgin, and the book contains an age gap of eighteen-nineteen years, with an older man/younger woman dynamic (the heroine is 25, the hero 43-44). It is intended for readers 18 years and older.]]> Jen Morris Andrea 3 romance
We also love a hot older man who's actually mature and can communicate his feelings. Yes please, sign me up immediately!

I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters, they definitely had plenty of chemistry, they both weren't casual about sex which is refreshing in a contemporary romance and I appreciated how seriously they took their relationship with each other and what it could potentially mean for the Dad's relationship with his son.

Since I've never read a book with the "(ex)boyfriend's dad" trope I was a bit unsure going into this one, thankfully the main female character and the ex-boyfriend/son never had sex with each other, otherwise I would have been totally squicked out! Ultimately, I don't think this is the trope for me, even though I felt that it was handled well in this book, the inherent angsty drama and familial strife with this dynamic is just a little too stressful for me. (Personally, I preferred the "Dad's best friend" trope in the 1st book, but that's just me, lol!)

The exploration of grief is also really well handled here. I truly felt the loss these characters had faced and cared about their healing journeys.

Overall another great installment in this series and I can't wait for more from this author!

Disclaimer: This ARC was sent to me by the author for an honest review.]]> 3.97 I Saw Her First (Forbidden on Fruit Street, #2)
author: Jen Morris
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: romance
review:
What a wonderful new book in the Forbidden on Fruit Street series! This book was full of characters you root for, spicy good times, well written sex scenes, dirty talk, and a dash of steamy praise kink!

We also love a hot older man who's actually mature and can communicate his feelings. Yes please, sign me up immediately!

I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters, they definitely had plenty of chemistry, they both weren't casual about sex which is refreshing in a contemporary romance and I appreciated how seriously they took their relationship with each other and what it could potentially mean for the Dad's relationship with his son.

Since I've never read a book with the "(ex)boyfriend's dad" trope I was a bit unsure going into this one, thankfully the main female character and the ex-boyfriend/son never had sex with each other, otherwise I would have been totally squicked out! Ultimately, I don't think this is the trope for me, even though I felt that it was handled well in this book, the inherent angsty drama and familial strife with this dynamic is just a little too stressful for me. (Personally, I preferred the "Dad's best friend" trope in the 1st book, but that's just me, lol!)

The exploration of grief is also really well handled here. I truly felt the loss these characters had faced and cared about their healing journeys.

Overall another great installment in this series and I can't wait for more from this author!

Disclaimer: This ARC was sent to me by the author for an honest review.
]]> <![CDATA[Feral & Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women]]> 217323302 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, horror fans will be delighted to discover a whole new list of horror recommendations—all by women writers.

Taking a cue from the popular practice of mood reading, the most common requests she gets on social media, and the overwhelming positive reaction to the icons included in her first book, Sadie has carefully curated and organized her 200+ recommendations into reading lists based on, well, vibes. Are you in your “Gothic Era?� Sadie has a list for that. Going on vacation and need some good dark beach reads? There’s a list for that. Just finished Mexican Gothic and need more “Sporror in your life?� You guessed it, there’s a list for that too! Each book on every list will include its title, author(s), date of publication, publisher, page count, theme, a spoiler-free description alongside Sadie’s recommendation.

Featuring five brand-new essays from popular and rising voices in the genre—Alma Katsu, Alexis Henderson, Christina Henry, Rae Knowles, and Laura Purcell, this illustrated reader’s guide is perfect for anyone looking to get out of a reading slump or diversify their TBR pile.]]> Sadie Hartmann Andrea 0 5.00 Feral & Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women
author: Sadie Hartmann
name: Andrea
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read, horror, books-about-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories]]> 34381090
In �Requiem�, a woman goes to Alaska to try and make sense of her aunt’s disappearance. An eleventh century poet wakes to find he is as an artificially intelligent companion on a starship. A woman of no account has the ability to look into the past.

Singh's work dives into the vast strangeness of the universe without and within, and she unblinkingly explores the ways we move through space and time: together, yet always apart.

Contents:
- With Fate Conspire (2013)
- A Handful of Rice (2012)
- Peripeteia (2013)
- Lifepod (2007)
- Oblivion: A Journey (2008)
- Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra (2010)
- Are You Sannata3159? (2010)
- Indra's Web (2011)
- Ruminations in an Alien Tongue (2012)
- Sailing the Antarsa (2013)
- Cry of the Kharchal (2013)
- Wake-Rider (2014)
- Ambiguity Machines: An Examination (2015)
- Requiem (2018)

]]> 320 Vandana Singh 1618731432 Andrea 1 Recommend anything by Ted Chiang instead. ]]> 4.05 2018 Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories
author: Vandana Singh
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: fantasy, sci-fi, short-stories
review:
Meandering, woo woo, boring, and lacking any impactful conclusions. Read about half the stories and then gave up. Bummed because I felt like I’d been saving this book for a rainy day when I needed something I knew would be good. Unfortunately this just wasn’t it.
Recommend anything by Ted Chiang instead.
]]> Water & Glass 34816568 256 Abi Curtis 0995465754 Andrea 2 3.67 2017 Water & Glass
author: Abi Curtis
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: apocalyptic, sci-fi, jolabokaflod
review:

]]> The Library at Hellebore 217872527 A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

Also by Cassandra Khaw:
The Salt Grows Heavy
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 288 Cassandra Khaw Andrea 0 to-read, fantasy, horror 3.75 2025 The Library at Hellebore
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read, fantasy, horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Soul to Touch (Duskwalker Brides, #3)]]> 87529644
After being discharged from the Demonslayer guild, Mayumi chose to isolate herself within the forest. The best place to hunt and kill Demons. But, one night, she’s surprised when a different monster is lured by her baits.

Just before she unleashes an arrow that’s aimed to kill, Mayumi pauses. She realises she’s seen that skulled, feline face before and that it had once saved her life.

All Faunus ever wanted was her.

After the Demon King cracked his skull, Faunus returns to watch over the only human he has ever cared for. He knows what his future holds, she would never become his bride, but he wants to spend what remains of his life protecting her.

He never expected that she would ever befriend him, or that she would openly desire him. She’s as fiery as her burning passion, and he’s desperate to let her consume him.

But his time in this world grows short, and Faunus doesn’t know how he can be with Mayumi when he knows nothing will save him.]]> 506 Opal Reyne 0645510467 Andrea 0 4.30 A Soul to Touch (Duskwalker Brides, #3)
author: Opal Reyne
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read, fantasy, monster-romance, romance
review:

]]> A Blood as Bright as the Moon 215003637

Frankenstein, Germany. Ambrose, a young vampire, lives a life secreted away from the modern world with the rest of his clan, all of them under the spell of the charismatic Regina, who spins stories of salvation for their kind. Their grand plan? To build makeshift wings and fly to the moon where a safe haven awaits for all vampires.



But Ambrose harbours a secret: he is not ready to abandon the earth, and he is in contact with a human who believes he can be saved. As the rest of his kind prepare to flee their home, Ambrose is torn between loyalties.



However something else is on the horizon � the Royal Diurnal Society � a group with sinister plans for vampires, are closing in, and if Ambrose isn’t careful, he could find himself right at the centre of a terrifying and mysterious experiment.]]> 288 Andrea Morstabilini 1803369752 Andrea 0 3.67 2025 A Blood as Bright as the Moon
author: Andrea Morstabilini
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read, fantasy, horror, vampires
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature]]> 224004259
For twenty-five years, Becky Siegel Spratford has worked as a librarian in Reader Advisory, training library workers all over the world on how to engage their patrons and readers, and to use her place as a horror expert and critic to get the word out to others; to bring even more readers into the horror fold.

Why I Love Horror is a captivating anthology and heartfelt tribute to the horror genre featuring essays from several of the most celebrated contemporary horror writers including, Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, and Rachel Harrison.]]> 272 Becky Siegel Spratford 1668205092 Andrea 0 to-read, horror, non-fiction 5.00 Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature
author: Becky Siegel Spratford
name: Andrea
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read, horror, non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild, #2)]]> 222181604 In a world of magical artifacts and fantastical beings, a woman with a deadly magic secret needs the help of the minotaur she’s trying to forget in the sizzling sequel to Ruby Dixon's New York Times bestseller Bull Moon Rising.

Gwenna has always considered herself a normal person. A former servant, she wants nothing more than to land a steady job with the Royal Artifactual Guild so she can make some steady coin to send home to her mother. She's not special. She's certainly not a necromancer. That would be impossible, given how necromancing (or any 'mancing) is forbidden upon penalty of death. So if the dead keep talking to her? Well, she's going to keep on ignoring them. They're not going to stand in the way of her dreams.

Also standing in her way? One big, arrogant, far-too-flirty Taurian named Raptor. They slept together once, and now he wants more . . . but she doesn’t have time for that. Her focus is on being a fledgling, a trainee for the Royal Artifactual Guild. But Raptor won't go away. He's on a secret mission for the guild to find an artifact thief.

Problem is, he thinks the thief is Gwenna.

How can she convince Raptor that he's got the wrong girl when all the signs point to her? And how do you tell a Taurian you can't date him because you hear dead people and it might cost you your life?]]> Ruby Dixon 0593817060 Andrea 0 4.27 By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild, #2)
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read, fantasy, romance, monster-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3)]]> 222376665 The next novella in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series, featuring Alex Easton investigating the dark, mysterious depths of a coal mine in America

Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do...]]> 192 T. Kingfisher 1250354927 Andrea 0 to-read, horror 5.00 2025 What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Andrea
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read, horror
review:

]]> Triple-Duty Bodyguards 62070817
As one of the world’s most hated celebrities, I’m used to unwanted attention. But when I wake up one morning to find a mysterious man has broken into my house, I know I need security, fast. Enter “The Angels�, my three ex-military bodyguards:

Glen, the Scottish sweetheart with the scarred face and gentle hands.
Kenta, the long-haired soldier with the tattooed skin and secretive smile.
And Matt, the blue-eyed, bad-tempered leader haunted by his military past.

Having three gorgeous men guarding me 24-7 sounds like a dream come true, but it turns out to be a nightmare. They’re always here, watching me. Caring for me. Protecting me. They tell me to ignore them and go about my business, but I can’t even think with them so close. The spark is too intense.

On top of that, we don’t get on. They think I’m a demanding diva. I think they’re overdramatic. When a trip to America sends the guys� protective instincts into overdrive, the sizzling tension between us finally breaks, and I learn my bodyguards� butterfly-inducing secret: they want me.

All three of them.

Meanwhile, my stalker’s behaviour is becoming more and more alarming. He’s photographing me through windows and following me in the shadows. With the premiere for my next movie coming up, will my three bodyguards be able to keep me safe from his clutches? Or will my terrifying pursuer finally get his deadly way?]]> 446 Lily Gold Andrea 2 3.80 2021 Triple-Duty Bodyguards
author: Lily Gold
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Lost Words 34837005
All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. Words like Dandelion, Otter, Bramble, Acorn and Lark represent the natural world of childhood, a rich landscape of discovery and imagination that is fading from children's minds.

The Lost Words stands against the disappearance of wild childhood. It is a joyful celebration of the poetry of nature words and the living glory of our distinctive, British countryside. With acrostic spell-poems by peerless wordsmith Robert Macfarlane and hand-painted illustrations by Jackie Morris, this enchanting book captures the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all ages.]]> 112 Robert Macfarlane 0241253586 Andrea 4 nature-writing, poetry, art 4.49 2017 The Lost Words
author: Robert Macfarlane
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: nature-writing, poetry, art
review:

]]> <![CDATA[War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival]]> 209414 From Sheri Fink, author of Five Days at Memorial, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

In April 1992, a handful of young physicians, not one of them a surgeon, was trapped along with 50,000 men, women, and children in the embattled enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. There the doctors faced the most intense professional, ethical, and personal predicaments of their lives.

Drawing on extensive interviews, documents, and recorded materials she collected over four and a half years, doctor and journalist Sheri Fink tells the harrowing--and ultimately enlightening--story of these physicians and the three who try to help them: an idealistic internist from Doctors without Borders, who hopes that interposition of international aid workers will help prevent a massacre; an aspiring Bosnian surgeon willing to walk through minefields to reach the civilian wounded; and a Serb doctor on the opposite side of the front line with the army that is intent on destroying his former colleagues.

With limited resources and a makeshift hospital overflowing with patients, how can these doctors decide who to save and who to let die? Will their duty to treat patients come into conflict with their own struggle to survive? And are there times when medical and humanitarian aid ironically prolong war and human suffering rather than helping to relieve it?]]> 429 Sheri Fink 158648267X Andrea 0 4.13 2003 War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival
author: Sheri Fink
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read, medical, non-fiction, science, war-novels
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space]]> 199798785
On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions of Americans witnessed the tragic deaths of a crew including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in 20th-century history—yet the details of what took place that day, and why, have largely been forgotten. Until now.

Based on extensive archival records and meticulous, original reporting, Challenger follows a handful of central protagonists—including each of the seven members of the doomed crew—through the years leading up to the accident, a detailed account of the tragedy itself, and into the investigation that followed. It’s a tale of optimism and promise undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige; of hubris and heroism; and of an investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers determined to bring the truth to light. Throughout, there are the ominous warning signs of a tragedy to come, recognized but then ignored, and ultimately kept from the public.

Higginbotham reveals the history of the shuttle program, the lives of men and women whose stories have been overshadowed by the disaster as well as the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled against the odds to get the first shuttle into space.]]> 563 Adam Higginbotham 198217661X Andrea 0 to-read, non-fiction, science 4.52 2024 Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read, non-fiction, science
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters]]> 59011975 Economist) Cold War history, Nuclear Folly.

Almost 145,000 Americans fled their homes in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in late March 1979, hoping to save themselves from an invisible enemy: radiation. The reactor at the nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant had gone into partial meltdown, and scientists feared an explosion that could spread radiation throughout the eastern United States. Thankfully, the explosion never took place—but the accident left deep scars in the American psyche, all but ending the nation’s love affair with nuclear power.

In Atoms and Ashes, Serhii Plokhy recounts the dramatic history of Three Mile Island and five more accidents that that have dogged the nuclear industry in its military and civil incarnations: the disastrous fallout caused by the testing of the hydrogen bomb in the Bikini Atoll in 1954; the Kyshtym nuclear disaster in the USSR, which polluted a good part of the Urals; the Windscale fire, the worst nuclear accident in the UK’s history; back to the USSR with Chernobyl, the result of a flawed reactor design leading to the exodus of 350,000 people; and, most recently, Fukushima in Japan, triggered by an earthquake and a tsunami, a disaster on a par with Chernobyl and whose clean-up will not take place in our lifetime.

Through the stories of these six terrifying incidents, Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances. Today, there are 440 nuclear reactors operating throughout the world, with nuclear power providing 10 percent of global electricity. Yet as the world seeks to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, the question arises: Just how safe is nuclear energy?]]> 345 Serhii Plokhy 1324021047 Andrea 0 4.06 2022 Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters
author: Serhii Plokhy
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read, environmentalism, non-fiction, science
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster]]> 40538681
Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its own citizens, but all of humanity. It is a story that has long remained in dispute, clouded from the beginning in secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation.

Midnight In Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of history's worst nuclear disaster, of human resilience and ingenuity and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will - lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats - remain not just vital but necessary.

Now, Higginbotham brings us closer to the truth behind this colossal tragedy.]]> 538 Adam Higginbotham 1501134612 Andrea 5 4.35 2019 Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: non-fiction, science, environmentalism, best-of-2025
review:

]]> Three Swedish Mountain Men 62334000 Three ripped, gorgeous men. One secluded Swedish mountain cabin. It looks like my vacation is about to heat up�

After my ex-boyfriend makes me the target of a cruel online hate campaign, I know I have to get away. The last thing I expect on my trip to Sweden is a moose standing in the middle of the road � or the mysterious, bearded ranger who pulls me from my wrecked car.

Now a storm’s brewing, and I’m being carried into a secluded mountain cabin by a Nordic God rippling with muscle. Inside, I’m greeted by three sizzling-hot Swedish mountain men:

Riven, the cool, collected doctor with the muscled arms and the impeccable bedside manner.
Eli, the flirty ski instructor with the charming smile and dimples I’m dying to kiss.
And Cole, the rugged blonde ranger with the ice-blue eyes and a hammer to rival Thor.

Trapped inside the cabin, we only have the roaring fire—and each other—to keep warm. And things heat up fast. All three men are fiercely protective over me. They look like Vikings, kiss like angels, and best of all, they love sharing me. It feels too good to be true.

But I’m not who I say I am. When my mountain men find out my true identity, will they be able to forgive my lies and love the real me? Or will my dark, painful secret shatter our relationship to pieces?

THREE SWEDISH MOUNTAIN MEN is a scorching stand-alone reverse harem romance, filled with love, adventure, and three sinfully gorgeous heroes. No cliffhanger, no cheating, and HEA guaranteed! ]]> 332 Lily Gold 1739586700 Andrea 3 romance, kindle-tbr 3.79 2021 Three Swedish Mountain Men
author: Lily Gold
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: romance, kindle-tbr
review:
Pretty good, I liked the plot and the setting and the spice was spicy, but ultimately this didn’t work for me. This is my first reverse harem romance and I was just kinda weirded out the whole time by the set-up (1 woman and 3 men, who are just friends and never gay for each other, but all have sex together??) and wishing that the romance was just between Daisy and Cole. I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum but I think this might end up being my first and last reverse harem romance.
]]> <![CDATA[Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection]]> 131164417
More specifically, it is a story by author and artist Ursula Vernon about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of indeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren.

With an irreverent sense of humor and a fantasy protagonist with a healthy dose of skepticism, Digger rapidly gained a huge following of devoted fans eager for the twice a week updates of the webcomic for the duration of the comic's run. Digger's story is now complete. It has been compiled in six bound volumes, each including additional content not posted online.]]> 822 Ursula Vernon 1956000275 Andrea 5 4.60 2013 Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection
author: Ursula Vernon
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: art, fantasy, graphic-novels, best-of-2024, favorites
review:
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! How is this not more popular! The story, the art, and the characters are all top tier. This was 800 pages and I could’ve continued reading for 800 more.
]]> The Fisherman 29901930
Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.]]> 266 John Langan 1939905214 Andrea 5 3.86 2016 The Fisherman
author: John Langan
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: horror, cosmic-horror, best-of-2024, favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)]]> 17910048 A lush tale of deadly court intrigue and a modern classic of fantasy by Locus award winner and Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award finalist Katherine Addison

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three half brothers in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend . . . and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne–or his life.]]> 446 Katherine Addison 076532699X Andrea 5 4.04 2014 The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)
author: Katherine Addison
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: fantasy, best-of-2024, favorites
review:
This may end up being my favorite book of 2024! So good! I could literally start this book from the beginning again right now!
]]> <![CDATA[The Last Gifts of the Universe]]> 207011690 A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.

When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left � and whatever came for the others will one day come for them.

Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals � anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.

Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.]]> 204 Riley August 1804950653 Andrea 2 sci-fi 3.73 2022 The Last Gifts of the Universe
author: Riley August
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: sci-fi
review:

]]> Black Woods Blue Sky 213243955 An unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks, Can love save us from ourselves?

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.]]> 306 Eowyn Ivey 0593231023 Andrea 0 to-read, all-owned-tbr 3.69 2025 Black Woods Blue Sky
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen]]> 13747
Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year.

At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crépes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver.

And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.]]> 310 Julie Powell 031610969X Andrea 4 3.74 2005 Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
author: Julie Powell
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: foodie-reads, memoir, non-fiction
review:

]]> Motherfield 60445067
Julia Cimafiejeva was born in an area of rural Belarus that became a Chernobyl zone when she was a child. The book opens with a poet's diary that records the course of violence unfolding in Belarus since the 2020 presidential election. It paints an intimate portrait of the poet's struggle with fear, despair, and guilt as she goes to protests, escapes police, longs for readership, learns about the detention of family and friends, and ultimately chooses life in exile.

But can she really escape the contaminated farmlands of her youth and her impure Belarusian mother tongue? Can she really escape the radiation of her motherfield? This is the first collection of Julia Cimafiejeva's poetry in English, prepared by a team of co-translators and poets Valzhyna Mort and Hanif Abdurraqib.]]> 280 Julia Cimafiejeva 1646052250 Andrea 4 4.08 Motherfield
author: Julia Cimafiejeva
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: environmentalism, poetry, translated
review:

]]> The Ardent Swarm 56449198
Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls� on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder—but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.

Along the way, he discovers a country and a people turned upside down by their new post–Arab Spring reality as Islamic fundamentalists seek to influence votes any way they can on the eve of the country’s first democratic elections. To succeed in his quest, and find a glimmer of hope to protect all that he holds dear, Sidi will have to look further than he ever imagined.

In this brilliantly accessible modern-day parable, Yamen Manai uses a masterful blend of humor and drama to reveal what happens in a country shaken by revolutionary change after the world stops watching.]]> 174 Yamen Manai 1542020468 Andrea 0 to-read, translated 4.10 2017 The Ardent Swarm
author: Yamen Manai
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read, translated
review:

]]> The Stardust Grail 195791479 Save one world. Doom her own.

From the acclaimed author of The Deep Sky comes a thrilling anti-colonial space heist to save an alien civilization.

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations—until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.

Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren’t the only ones hunting for it.

Maya sets out on a breakneck quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.

--

Content warnings are available at the author's website (see author bio).]]> 312 Yume Kitasei 1250875374 Andrea 2 3.63 2024 The Stardust Grail
author: Yume Kitasei
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: big-dumb-object-sci-fi, sci-fi, jolabokaflod
review:

]]> The Spellshop 199269583
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.

She and her assistant, Caz, a magically sentient spider plant, have spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz save as many books as they can carry and flee to a faraway island Kiela was sure she’d never return to: her childhood home. Kiela hopes to lay low in the overgrown and rundown cottage her late parents left her and figure out a way to survive without drawing the attention of either the empire or the revolutionaries. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair.

The empire, for all its magic and power, has been neglecting for years the people who depend on magical intervention to maintain healthy livestock and crops. Not only that, but the very magic that should be helping them has been creating destructive storms that have taken a toll on the island. Due to her past role at the library, Kiela feels partially responsible for this, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.

Her plan comes with risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.]]> 384 Sarah Beth Durst 1250324610 Andrea 3 fantasy, romance 4.13 2024 The Spellshop
author: Sarah Beth Durst
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: fantasy, romance
review:

]]> The Lost Spells 49358272 The follow-up to the internationally bestselling sensation The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a beautiful collection of poems and illustrations that evokes the magic of the everyday natural world.

Since its publication in 2017, The Lost Words has enchanted readers with its poetry and illustrations of the natural world. Now, The Lost Spells, a book kindred in spirit and tone, continues to re-wild the lives of children and adults.

The Lost Spells evokes the wonder of everyday nature, conjuring up red foxes, birch trees, jackdaws, and more in poems and illustrations that flow between the pages and into readers� minds. Robert Macfarlane’s spell-poems and Jackie Morris’s watercolour illustrations are musical and magical: these are summoning spells, words of recollection, charms of protection. To read The Lost Spells is to see anew the natural world within our grasp and to be reminded of what happens when we allow it to slip away.]]> 240 Robert Macfarlane 1487007795 Andrea 4 art, nature-writing, poetry 4.48 2020 The Lost Spells
author: Robert Macfarlane
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: art, nature-writing, poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology]]> 42515426 It was 11pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever.

No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.

In this honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology, Mark Boyle explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the spring, foraging and fishing.

What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire � much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.]]> 277 Mark Boyle 1786076012 Andrea 0 3.92 2019 The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology
author: Mark Boyle
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read, memoir, minimalism, nature-writing, non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft]]> 59203409 224 Lynn Cassells 1645020703 Andrea 0 4.19 2022 Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft
author: Lynn Cassells
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read, environmentalism, memoir, nature-writing, non-fiction, set-in-scotland
review:

]]> Under Fortunate Stars 59365820 Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.

The Gallion's chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five's legendary ship—and the Five's famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.

But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake.]]> 480 Ren Hutchings 178618592X Andrea 0 3.87 2022 Under Fortunate Stars
author: Ren Hutchings
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read, sci-fi, time-travel, all-owned-tbr
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)]]> 195532965
The last thing Ada Hart needs is a man to take care of her. Not anymore. After failing out of her interior design program and the disaster that was her short-lived marriage, Ada clawed her way up from her rock bottom. Now, the only person she trusts is herself, and that has gotten her further than ever before. She has her own business, and one of the largest ranches in Wyoming just hired her for the most important project of her career.

When Ada arrives in Meadowlark, she finds herself in a dive bar where she can’t seem to shake the eyes of a handsome cowboy. When she leads him to the back of the bar, he leaves her with a kiss that most people can only fantasize about. She almost regrets that she’ll never see him againĚý.Ěý.Ěý. except it turns out he’s her new boss.

Weston Ryder is a happy guy. Even happier now that the mystery woman from the bar is the interior designer for his dream project on his family’s ranch. He feels like he hit the jackpot. It’s too bad she wants absolutely nothing to do with him outside of work. Ada is convinced the pull she feels toward Wes will go away, but Wes can’t stop thinking about her. Even though walls are coming down around Rebel Blue, Ada’s walls are firmly in place.

Can they make it through this project without giving in? Or will they both put their dreams on the line for a chance at love?]]> 320 Lyla Sage 059373243X Andrea 4 romance 3.90 2024 Swift and Saddled (Rebel Blue Ranch, #2)
author: Lyla Sage
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle, #1)]]> 36245705
An executive clan gives the order to shoot Oichi out of an airlock on suspicion of being an insurgent. A sentient AI, a Medusa unit, rescues Oichi and begins to teach her the truth—the Executives are not who they think they are. Oichi, officially dead and now bonded to the Medusa unit, sees a chance to make a better life for everyone on board.

As she sets things right one assassination at a time, Oichi becomes the very insurgent the Executives feared, and in the process uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship that is their home.]]> 317 Emily Devenport 1250169348 Andrea 2 sci-fi I really like the Generation Ship sub-genre in sci-fi, with their AI elements, discussions on class, and interstellar scope, but this book simply fell flat. The book tried to accomplish way too much in 300 pages and frankly didn't have a talented enough writer to pull it all off.

Highly recommend, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Blindsight by Peter Watts if this book left you wanting and feeling disappointed.]]> 3.72 2018 Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle, #1)
author: Emily Devenport
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: sci-fi
review:
I feel like I've recently been on the hunt for a sci-fi that really works for me and sadly this one was another disappointing addition to the genre. I feel like I haven't been moved, impressed, or awe struck by the genre in quite some time and I'm starting to feel a little desperate about the situation. Not too long ago I would have said Sci-Fi was my favorite genre, but I haven't had many stellar sci-fi reads for quite a while. (Notable recent standouts: The Vanished Birds, Ninefox Gambit and A Memory Called Empire (both of which were, unfortunately, swiftly kicked in the balls by their lackluster sequels), and An Unkindness of Ghosts).
I really like the Generation Ship sub-genre in sci-fi, with their AI elements, discussions on class, and interstellar scope, but this book simply fell flat. The book tried to accomplish way too much in 300 pages and frankly didn't have a talented enough writer to pull it all off.

Highly recommend, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Blindsight by Peter Watts if this book left you wanting and feeling disappointed.
]]> Bound to the Shadow Prince 198110745
As time inside the unchanging tower rolls on, Candra uncovers the man behind the stony facade. And when their tenure hits an unexpected snag, Candra and Nemeth are forced to make a difficult choice. They’ll need to face an outside world they no longer recognize, one that threatens their lives and their surprising love.]]> 504 Ruby Dixon 1998854752 Andrea 3 fantasy, romance 3.76 2024 Bound to the Shadow Prince
author: Ruby Dixon
name: Andrea
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: fantasy, romance
review:
Fun, fast, flirty, and forgettable. This book made me smile and was a great time while I was reading it, however, I don't think this one will stay with me and it's definitely not a new fave by this author.
]]> <![CDATA[Give Me Butterflies (Oaks Sisters, #1)]]> 211212489
Millie was never one to take the expected path. She's an entomologist who loves her job as a natural science curator, inspiring museum visitors every day. It's her dream to take a larger role in the planning of her department, so when a director position opens up, she is determined not to let anything distract her from her goals. Especially her grumpy coworker with his permanent scowl, electric blue eyes, and nerdy astronomy ties.

. . . Not that she’s spent much time noticing any of those things.

Finn doesn’t mean to glare at everyone, but he’s juggling his role at the museum, navigating the grief of losing his sister, attempting to make his nieces smile, and trying not to ruin dinner for the fifth night in a row. He can't afford to let anything slip, and certainly doesn't need anything more on his plate. Millie literally stumbling into him with her bright smile and sunny optimism, is the last thing he needs.

They want nothing to do with each other. But with Finn on the interview committee, avoidance is impossible. And Millie soon realizes it's one thing when a job is on the line. It's quite another when it's her heart.]]> 384 Jillian Meadows 0063416166 Andrea 0 to-read, romance 4.02 2023 Give Me Butterflies (Oaks Sisters, #1)
author: Jillian Meadows
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> Days in the Caucasus 42935822 288 Banine 1782274871 Andrea 0 4.07 1945 Days in the Caucasus
author: Banine
name: Andrea
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read, memoir, non-fiction, translated
review:

]]>