Rita's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:46:57 -0700 60 Rita's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Finlay Donovan, #5)]]> 211003787 From New York Times bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave—the hugely anticipated next installment in the fan-favorite Finlay Donovan series.

Finlay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet . . . but at least there's not a body in her backyard.

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.]]> 320 Elle Cosimano 1250337348 Rita 4 4.18 2025 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Finlay Donovan, #5)
author: Elle Cosimano
name: Rita
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
I don't think this author has ever been to a Panera Bread.
]]> A Sorceress Comes to Call 195790847 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]> 327 T. Kingfisher 1250244072 Rita 5 4.07 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Rita
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
What if Downton Abbey, but also suspense and light horror
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Rita 4 4.49 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Rita
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
Takes a bit to get into it, but once you get past the edge lord BS it's a nice story about a guy and a cat.
]]> <![CDATA[What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile, #1)]]> 65213381
When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.

With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.

The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in this lush, immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.]]> 416 Isabel Ibañez 1250803373 Rita 3 3.83 2023 What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile, #1)
author: Isabel Ibañez
name: Rita
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
Way too much setup and not enough action.
]]> <![CDATA[To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers, #3)]]> 6503539
Reclusive Sir Alistair Munroe has hidden in his castle ever since returning from the Colonies, scarred inside and out. But when a mysterious beauty arrives at his door, the passions he's kept suppressed for years begin to awaken.

TRUST A BEAUTY WITH A PAST . . .

Running from past mistakes has taken legendary beauty Helen Fitzwilliam from the luxury of the ton to a crumbling Scottish castle . . . and a job as a housekeeper. Yet Helen is determined to start a new life and she won't let dust-or a beast of a man-scare her away.

TO TAME HIS MOST SECRET DESIRES?

Beneath Helen's beautiful façade, Alistair finds a courageous and sensual woman. A woman who doesn't back away from his surliness-or his scars. But just as he begins to believe in true love, Helen's secret past threatens to tear them apart. Now both Beast and Beauty must fight for the one thing neither believed they could ever find-a happy ever after.]]> 374 Elizabeth Hoyt Rita 3 3.96 2009 To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers, #3)
author: Elizabeth Hoyt
name: Rita
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Swordheart 42747739 426 T. Kingfisher 1614504636 Rita 4 4.07 2018 Swordheart
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Rita
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2)]]> 127280062 Torn apart by war. Reunited by love?

Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over.

Roman is missing, lost behind enemy lines, with no memory of his past, or Iris. Hoping his memories return, he begins to write again � but this time for the enemy.

When a strange letter arrives through his wardrobe door, he strikes up a correspondence with a penpal who seems at once mysterious� and strangely familiar.

As their connection deepens, the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.]]> 420 Rebecca Ross 1250857457 Rita 3 3.99 2023 Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Rita
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
This duology should have been 1 book. Really felt like the first half was just a re-hash of the first book and an excuse to use the typewriters. The second half felt rushed and the ending was meh.
]]> <![CDATA[The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, #1)]]> 22929563
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.]]> 318 Natasha Pulley 1620408333 Rita 3 Characters were flat and forgettable. Genre was muddy. Plot was hard to find.
I did enjoy the octopus.]]> 3.72 2015 The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, #1)
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Rita
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
Aggressively mid.
Characters were flat and forgettable. Genre was muddy. Plot was hard to find.
I did enjoy the octopus.
]]> <![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 Rita 4 4.14 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Rita
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
I'm not so sure about the love story, but the setting i want to know so much more about, so will read book 2.
]]> Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Rita 4 4.19 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Rita
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
Wait...was this...good actually? The world is still dumb, but they spent less time in class and more time doing cool dragon shit, which helped a lot.
]]> Rouge 157184735 From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.]]> 383 Mona Awad Rita 5 3.54 2023 Rouge
author: Mona Awad
name: Rita
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:
Horrifying, suspenseful, funny, dragging the beauty industry, and the true vilian is the generational trauma we made along the way. *chef's kiss*
]]> <![CDATA[The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne (The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, #1)]]> 49511423
In his first new project since Lockwood & Co., Jonathan once again fuses action, humour and mystery to create a uniquely exciting adventure with two fascinating heroes at its heart.]]> 397 Jonathan Stroud 1406394815 Rita 4 4.05 2021 The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne (The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, #1)
author: Jonathan Stroud
name: Rita
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
What if Lockwood and Co, but genetic mutations instead of ghosts. Fun and well written.
]]> Swordcrossed 204309713
What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere.

Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible—and inconveniently handsome—wool merchant like Matti.

However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti’s wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the question: how many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want?]]> 372 Freya Marske 1250341620 Rita 3 Too much wool politics. 3.93 2024 Swordcrossed
author: Freya Marske
name: Rita
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:
Too much wool politics.
]]> <![CDATA[Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1)]]> 208930983 In the underground Fae realm, only the strongest and most ruthless have power—but a young human woman forced into a life of servitude is about to change everything.

Kenna Heron is best known in her village for being a little wild—some say “half feral”—but she’ll need every ounce of that ferocity to survive captivity in the cruel Fae court.

Trapped as a servant in the faeries� underground kingdom of Mistei, Kenna must help her new mistress undertake six deadly trials, one for each branch of magic: Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood. If she succeeds, her mistress will gain immortality and become the heir to Earth House. If she doesn’t, the punishment is death—for both mistress and servant.

With no ally but a sentient dagger of mysterious origins, Kenna must face monsters, magic, and grueling physical tests. But worse dangers wait underground, and soon Kenna gets caught up in a secret rebellion against the inventively sadistic faerie king. When her feelings for the rebellion’s leader turn passionate, Kenna must decide if she’s willing to risk her life for a better world and a chance at happiness.

Surviving the trials and overthrowing a tyrant king will take cunning, courage, and an iron will... but even that may not be enough.]]> 451 Sarah Hawley 0593819799 Rita 5 4.21 2024 Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1)
author: Sarah Hawley
name: Rita
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:
Love the world building and the complex romance. Spice was interesting and felt related to the plot and character development.
]]> Shark Heart 62919375
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.]]> 416 Emily Habeck 1668006499 Rita 5 3.96 2023 Shark Heart
author: Emily Habeck
name: Rita
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/13
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
I was not prepared for the Man Turns Into Shark book to make me feel ALL of my feelings.
]]> <![CDATA[Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]> 1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 Rita 5 4.37 2024 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)]]> 49021976 The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson

After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move.

Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin's scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.

At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.]]> 1232 Brandon Sanderson 0765326388 Rita 4 4.58 2020 Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3)]]> 34002132 Oathbringer, the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance.

Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together--and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past--even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.]]> 1248 Brandon Sanderson Rita 4 4.60 2017 Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)]]> 17332218 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.]]> 1088 Brandon Sanderson 0765326361 Rita 5 4.76 2014 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Rita 0 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fox Wife 127278666 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> 390 Yangsze Choo 1250266017 Rita 4 3.97 2024 The Fox Wife
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Rita
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> This Will Be Fun 199635075 The Princess Bride meets People We Meet on Vacation in this cozy quest romantasy about a group of friends who once defended their magical land together but haven’t spoken since, reuniting to attend a royal wedding, and ending up on a new adventure to save the realm—and hopefully themselves.

Ten years ago, they saved the realm. It ruined their lives.

Everyone in Mythria knows the story of how best friends Beatrice and Elowen, handsome ex-bandit Clare, and valiant leader Galwell the Great defended the land from darkness. It’s a tale beloved by all—except the former heroes. They haven’t spoken in a decade, devastated by what their quest cost them.

But when they receive an invitation to the queen of Mythria’s wedding, it’s a summons they can’t refuse . . . and a reunion for the ages, with Clare secretly not over his long-ago fling with Beatrice, Beatrice fighting the guilt she feels over how everything ended, Elowen unprepared for the return of her former flame (the cunning Vandra), and all of them lost without Galwell’s presence. And if reuniting with old friends and lovers wasn’t perilous enough, dark forces from their past have returned, plotting a domination that only Mythria’s one-time defenders can stop. Maybe.

Dusting off old weapons and old instincts, they face undead nemeses, crystal caves, enchanted swords, coffee shops, games of magical Truth or Dare, and, hardest of all, their past—rife with wounds never healed and romances never forgotten.

This time around, will their story end in happily ever after?]]> 416 E.B. Asher 0063371367 Rita 2 3.39 2024 This Will Be Fun
author: E.B. Asher
name: Rita
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves:
review:
I can not take Dark Lord Mike seriously.
]]> Service Model 195790861 To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.]]> 376 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1250290287 Rita 5 3.99 2024 Service Model
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Rita
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Sky Full of Elephants 207293815 In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial� America in search of answers.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

When they enter the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.]]> 304 Cebo Campbell 1668034921 Rita 3 3.82 2024 Sky Full of Elephants
author: Cebo Campbell
name: Rita
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)]]> 202468425 Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this charming and magical novel, inspired by the myth of cats returning favors to those who care for them, reminds us that it’s never too late to follow our stars.

In Japan cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives.

It’s also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes, coffees, and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives have veered off course—because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. After all, there is a reason the shop appeared to each of them…]]> 240 Mai Mochizuki 0593726820 Rita 3 3.61 2020 The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1)
author: Mai Mochizuki
name: Rita
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hollow Boy (Lockwood & Co., #3)]]> 24397043
Meanwhile, there are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures. But ghosts seem to be the least of Lockwood & Co.'s concerns when assassins attack during a carnival in the center of the city. Can the team get past their personal issues to save the day on all fronts, or will bad feelings attract yet more trouble?

Danger abounds, tensions escalate, and new loyalties form in this third delightfully terrifying adventure in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.]]> 374 Jonathan Stroud 1484709683 Rita 3 4.36 2015 The Hollow Boy (Lockwood & Co., #3)
author: Jonathan Stroud
name: Rita
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Murder at the End of the World]]> 136276877
Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

From the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.]]> 368 Stuart Turton Rita 4 3.63 2024 The Last Murder at the End of the World
author: Stuart Turton
name: Rita
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)]]> 203147386
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies...including their nemesis, the king.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.

It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?]]> 368 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649377177 Rita 2 4.07 2024 Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Rita
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:
How is this so long and absolutely nothing happens?
]]> Happily Never After 181853964 Two love sceptics agree to work together as professional wedding disruptors. But fate has more romantic plans in mind for them . . .

When Sophie finds out right before getting married that she’s been cheated on (again!) it’s time for drastic action. Instead of calling the wedding off, she hires a gorgeous stranger � Max � to interrupt the ceremony and confront her fiancé. It’s hardly the wedding she’d planned. But Sophie enjoys taking revenge. So, when Max asks if she’ll work with him to help others expose their cheating partners, Sophie agrees. When they’re hired by a man who’s marrying the girl that once broke Max’s heart, Sophie expects Max to revel in the job. But instead, he seems to be wrestling with his feelings for his ex. And worse than that, Sophie is jealous . . .Tropes/ Friends to lovers2. Slow burn romance3. Spicy books4. Love triangle]]> 313 Lynn Painter Rita 3 3.63 2024 Happily Never After
author: Lynn Painter
name: Rita
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Love and Other Conspiracies 202468452 The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.

Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.]]> 368 Mallory Marlowe 059364008X Rita 4 3.93 2024 Love and Other Conspiracies
author: Mallory Marlowe
name: Rita
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Twisted Love (Twisted, #1) 55817097 He has a heart of ice...but for her, he'd burn the world.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:

A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.

But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.

Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.

Twisted Love is a brother’s best friend/opposites attract romance with a hint of suspense. It's book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

WARNING: This book contains a possessive, morally gray alphahole; explicit sexual content, and profanity. No cheating or menage, but if you're looking for a traditionally sweet, loveable hero, this is not the book for you. Recommended for 18+. ]]> 360 Ana Huang Rita 1 3.74 2021 Twisted Love (Twisted, #1)
author: Ana Huang
name: Rita
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire (Glimmer Falls, #3)]]> 196806415 Ben Rosewood never meant to be bound to a vampire succubus, especially one as sexy-yet-terrifying as Eleanora Bettencourt-Devereux, but he has to admit there are some fang-tastic perks�.

Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful but angry vampire.

Eleanora Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. But thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleanora’s been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries. But did this witch really sell her to someone new, and for only ninety-nine cents?

Eleanora would claw this werewolf’s heart out and eat it, if only the binding spell would allow her to. But Eleanora and Ben soon realize they can help each other with both vengeful and less hostile needs. And why not have a little fun along the way?]]> 444 Sarah Hawley 0593547977 Rita 4 3.80 2024 A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire (Glimmer Falls, #3)
author: Sarah Hawley
name: Rita
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
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]]> The Pairing 199440249 definitely not.

Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all.

Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It's in the past.

All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.

It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It's fine. There's nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?

But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can't have.]]> 432 Casey McQuiston 1250862744 Rita 3 3.70 2024 The Pairing
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Rita
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves:
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]]> Butts: A Backstory 59366123 Butts: A Backstory, reporter, essayist, and RadioLab contributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out.

Spanning nearly two centuries, this “whip-smart� (Publishers Weekly, starred review) cultural history takes us from the performance halls of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, the music video set of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back� and the mountains of Arizona, where every year humans and horses race in a feat of gluteal endurance. Along the way, she meets evolutionary biologists who study how butts first developed; models whose measurements have defined jean sizing for millions of women; and the fitness gurus who created fads like “Buns of Steel.� She also examines the central importance of race through figures like Sarah Bartmann, once known as the “Venus Hottentot,� Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women of color whose butts have been idolized, envied, and despised.

Part deep dive reportage, part personal journey, part cabinet of curiosities, Butts is an entertaining, illuminating, and thoughtful examination of why certain silhouettes come in and out of fashion—and how larger ideas about race, control, liberation, and power affect our most private feelings about ourselves and others.]]> 311 Heather Radke 1982135484 Rita 4 3.74 2022 Butts: A Backstory
author: Heather Radke
name: Rita
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> A Dark and Drowning Tide 174146852 A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor's murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

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

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

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

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.]]> 384 Allison Saft 0593722345 Rita 0 to-read 3.60 2024 A Dark and Drowning Tide
author: Allison Saft
name: Rita
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Daydream (Maple Hills, #3) 199798652
When his procrastination lands him in a difficult class with his least favorite professor, Henry Turner knows he’s going to have to work extra hard to survive his junior year of college. And now with his new title of captain for the hockey team—which he didn’t even want—Henry absolutely cannot fail. Enter Halle Jacobs, a fellow junior who finds herself befriended by Henry when he accidentally crashes her book club.

Halle may not have the romantic pursuits of her favorite fictional leads, but she’s an academic superstar, and as soon as she hears about Henry’s problems with his class reading material, she offers to help. Too bad being a private tutor isn’t exactly ideal given her own studies, job, book club, and the novel she’s trying to write. But new experiences are the key to beating her writer’s block, and Henry’s promising to be the one to give them to her.

They just need to stick to their rule book.

Oh, and not fall in love.]]> 433 Hannah Grace 1668026252 Rita 0 to-read 3.92 2024 Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)
author: Hannah Grace
name: Rita
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom]]> 203578812 A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.]]> 400 Jason Pargin 125028595X Rita 0 to-read 3.98 2024 I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
author: Jason Pargin
name: Rita
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last One at the Wedding 203579177 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 338 Jason Rekulak 1250895782 Rita 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Last One at the Wedding
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Rita
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War, #1)]]> 201930181
How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end. The Carryx � part empire, part hive � have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy.  Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.   Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team.  Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.  Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand � and manipulate � the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination.  He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.]]> 422 James S.A. Corey 031652557X Rita 4 4.11 2024 The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Rita
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Restraint (Dark Olympus, #7)]]> 62171046 300 Katee Robert 1728262828 Rita 2 3.46 2024 Dark Restraint (Dark Olympus, #7)
author: Katee Robert
name: Rita
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/22
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves:
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I was not rooting for this couple :(
]]> I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons 199798488
What happens next is not the fairy tale you may be expecting.]]> 278 Peter S. Beagle 1668025272 Rita 5 3.62 2024 I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons
author: Peter S. Beagle
name: Rita
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Rita 3 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Rita
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wren in the Holly Library (Oak & Holly Cycle, #1)]]> 61431964 Can you love the dark when you know what it hides?

Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.

In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce...of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library...not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.

But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be no escape...]]> 400 K.A. Linde 1649374070 Rita 3 3.73 2024 The Wren in the Holly Library (Oak & Holly Cycle, #1)
author: K.A. Linde
name: Rita
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[“You Just Need to Lose Weight�: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People]]> 60808740 The co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice

The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy—calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.� The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive.

In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,� Aubrey Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them.

As conversations about fat acceptance and fat justice continue to grow, “You Just Need to Lose Weight� will be essential to ensure that those conversations are informed, effective, and grounded in both research and history.

]]> 205 Aubrey Gordon 0807006475 Rita 5 4.34 2023 “You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People
author: Aubrey Gordon
name: Rita
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Very Merry Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #5)]]> 59831299 'Tis the season for a Bromance Book Club matchmaking mission! This time, they're pulling out the mistletoe for everyone's favorite country music star, Colton, and his second chance at love.

Country music’s golden boy Colton Wheeler felt the most perfect harmony when he was with Gretchen Winthrop. But for her, it was a love him and leave him situation. A year later, Colton is struggling to push his music forward in a new direction. If it weren’t about to be the most magical time of year and the support of the Bromance Book Club, he’d be wallowing in self-pity.

It’s hard for immigration attorney Gretchen not to feel a little Scrooge-ish about the excess of Christmas when her clients are scrambling to afford their rent. So when her estranged, wealthy family reaches out with an offer that will allow her to better serve the community, she’s unable to say no. She just needs to convince Colton to be the new face of her family’s whiskey brand. No big deal�

Colton agrees to consider Gretchen’s offer in exchange for three dates before Christmas. With the help of the Bromance Book Club, Colton throws himself into the task of proving to her there’s a spark between them. But Gretchen and Colton will both need to overcome the ghosts of Christmas past to build a future together.
]]> 359 Lyssa Kay Adams 0593332792 Rita 3 4.01 2022 A Very Merry Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #5)
author: Lyssa Kay Adams
name: Rita
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/28
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Bury Your Gays 195790870 From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he's pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale�"for the algorithm"―Misha discovers that it's not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what's right―before it's too late.]]> 295 Chuck Tingle 1250874653 Rita 3 4.14 2024 Bury Your Gays
author: Chuck Tingle
name: Rita
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:
I, too, was unhappy with the Supernatural Finale.
]]> The Book of Doors 156480764
In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door .

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 408 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Rita 3 4.04 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Rita
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves:
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]]> The Romance Recipe 58314356 A fiery restaurant owner falls for her enigmatic head chef in this charming, emotional romance

Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.

Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane�

Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.

Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean�

Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.

Carina Adores is home to romantic love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.]]> 304 Ruby Barrett 1335506918 Rita 3 3.57 2022 The Romance Recipe
author: Ruby Barrett
name: Rita
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Five Broken Blades (The Broken Blades, #1)]]> 200982383 It’s the season
for treason�

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.]]> 474 Mai Corland 1649376901 Rita 4 3.80 2024 Five Broken Blades (The Broken Blades, #1)
author: Mai Corland
name: Rita
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)]]> 195820807
Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?]]> 432 Abby Jimenez 1538704439 Rita 4 4.36 2024 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Rita
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves:
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]]> Heavenbreaker 133938782
Bravery isn't what you do. It's what you endure.

The duke of the powerful House Hauteclare is the first to die. With my dagger in his back.

He didn’t see it coming. Didn’t anticipate the bastard daughter who was supposed to die with her mother—on his order. He should have left us with the rest of the Station’s starving, commoner rubbish.

Now there’s nothing left. Just icy-white rage and a need to make House Hauteclare pay. Every damn one of them.

Even if it means riding Heavenbreaker—one of the few enormous machines left over from the War—and jousting against the fiercest nobles in the system.

Each win means another one of my enemies dies. And here, in the cold terror of space, the machine and I move as one, intent on destroying each adversary—even if it’s someone I care about. Even if it’s someone I’m falling for.

Only I’m not alone. Not anymore.

Because there’s something in the machine with me. Something horrifying. Something�more.

And it won’t be stopped.]]> 448 Sara Wolf 1649375700 Rita 4 3.66 2024 Heavenbreaker
author: Sara Wolf
name: Rita
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]> The Martian 18007564
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error� are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills � and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit � he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

]]> 384 Andy Weir 0804139024 Rita 3 4.41 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Rita
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Witch King (The Rising World, #1)]]> 61885085 "You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King...

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

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

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

He’s not going to like the answers.]]> 415 Martha Wells 1250826799 Rita 1 3.60 2023 Witch King (The Rising World, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Rita
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:
You know when you walk into a room of people you don't know and they go around the circle and say their name, and then make a joke about there being a quiz later? That's the first chapter of this book.
]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Rita 4 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Rita
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
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]]> The Stars Too Fondly 200987229 In her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton tells a tale of galaxy-spanning friendship, improbable love, and found family.

So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace, but then the stupid dark-matter engine started on its own. Now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri and unable to turn around while being harangued by a hologram that has the face and snide attitude of the ship’s missing captain, Billie.

Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship travels deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting; old mysteries come crawling back to life; and Cleo’s initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.]]> 336 Emily Hamilton 0063320819 Rita 5 3.70 2024 The Stars Too Fondly
author: Emily Hamilton
name: Rita
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves:
review:
Cute, fun, and uncomplicated. Though I do wonder why they're all making popculture references that are almost 100 years old.
]]> The Saint of Bright Doors 61884985
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.]]> 356 Vajra Chandrasekera 1250847389 Rita 3 3.64 2023 The Saint of Bright Doors
author: Vajra Chandrasekera
name: Rita
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1)]]> 61753288
But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town that boasts more dragons than people, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other� and the world.]]> 388 Rebecca Thorne Rita 3 3.71 2022 Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1)
author: Rebecca Thorne
name: Rita
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:
The wish.com version of Legends and Lattes.
]]> Translation State 62873999
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots--or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches--and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line--the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a standalone story set in Leckie's celebrated Imperial Radch universe.]]> 422 Ann Leckie 031628971X Rita 2 3.96 2023 Translation State
author: Ann Leckie
name: Rita
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/06
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blood on the Tide (Crimson Sails, #2)]]> 196848638
As a bloodline vampire, Lizzie has never had a problem taking what she wants, and right now what she wants are the family heirlooms that were stolen from her and a portal home. Too bad even that short list is impossible to accomplish on her own—and her allies have bigger things to worry about.

When they rescue a selkie from captivity, it’s the perfect solution to her problem. Lizzie needs a guide through Threshold and the selkie needs someone to help her get her skin back.  Maeve didn’t choose to give up her skin—it was stolen from her. Now she’s in an uneasy partnership with a dangerous woman who seems more apt to kill than to share a kind word. It’s terrifying…and a bit alluring. Even though she knows it will end in heartbreak, Maeve can’t help being drawn to Lizzie and her all-too-pleasurable vampire bite. 

Unfortunately, the danger to Maeve’s heart is the least of her worries. The ship Lizzie’s chasing belongs to the Cŵn Annwn, and they don’t take kindly to people who steal from them. Not even Lizzie’s viciousness or Maeve’s selkie strength will be enough to save them if the Cŵn Annwn seek retribution…]]> 336 Katee Robert 0593639103 Rita 3 3.42 2024 Blood on the Tide (Crimson Sails, #2)
author: Katee Robert
name: Rita
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/04
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Some Desperate Glory 58388343 While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

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

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

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

A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, Some Desperate Glory is award-winning author Emily Tesh’s highly anticipated debut novel.]]> 438 Emily Tesh 1250834988 Rita 3 4.01 2023 Some Desperate Glory
author: Emily Tesh
name: Rita
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)]]> 44019067 The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.]]> 352 Lyssa Kay Adams 1984806106 Rita 4 3.86 2019 The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)
author: Lyssa Kay Adams
name: Rita
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/23
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
review:
Read this book after reading a few of the others in this series, and it's like when you watch a TV pilot after watching the whole series. Its got the same vibes, but everything is just a little different and some of the characters are being played by different actors.
]]> <![CDATA[Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)]]> 58684524
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere� ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

The New York Times bestselling author of Life's Too Short delivers a refreshingly modern fairy tale perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Emily Henry.]]> 389 Abby Jimenez 1538704374 Rita 2 4.26 2022 Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Rita
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/21
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated, #1)]]> 165940202
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.

Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.

Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.]]> 419 Danielle L. Jensen 0593599837 Rita 4 3.91 2024 A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated, #1)
author: Danielle L. Jensen
name: Rita
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Most Agreeable Murder (Beatrice Steele, #1)]]> 62794526 When a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township--she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters-- beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she'd be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever.

For her family's sake, she's vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family's estate, and they will be ruined or, even worse, forced to move to France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior . . . which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball.

Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Contending with competitive card games, tricky tonics, and Swampshire's infamous squelch holes, Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice and her own desires--before anyone else is murdered.]]> 352 Julia Seales 0593449983 Rita 4 3.67 2023 A Most Agreeable Murder (Beatrice Steele, #1)
author: Julia Seales
name: Rita
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Isn't It Bromantic? (Bromance Book Club, #4)]]> 55470802 With his passion for romance novels, it was only a matter of time before Vlad wrote one.

Elena Konnikova has lived her entire adult life in the shadows. As the daughter of a Russian journalist who mysteriously disappeared, she escaped danger the only way she knew how: She married her childhood friend, Vladimir, and moved to the United States, where he is a professional hockey player in Nashville.

Vlad, aka the Russian, thought he could be content with his marriage of convenience. But it’s become too difficult to continue in a one-sided relationship. He joined the Bromance Book Club to learn how to make his wife love him, but all he’s learned is that he deserves more. He’s ready to create his own sweeping romance—both on and off the page.

The bros are unwilling to let Vlad forgo true love—and this time they’re not operating solo. They join forces with Vlad’s neighbors, a group of meddling widows who call themselves the Loners. But just when things finally look promising, Elena’s past life intrudes and their happily ever after is cast into doubt.
]]> 350 Lyssa Kay Adams 0593332784 Rita 3 4.01 2021 Isn't It Bromantic? (Bromance Book Club, #4)
author: Lyssa Kay Adams
name: Rita
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #2)]]> 52655000 Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he’ll soon discover that real life is better than fiction. 

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a pastry chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she’ll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.

Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv’s blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He’ll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.

Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they’re reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they’re just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv’s heart... even though she’s determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.]]> 348 Lyssa Kay Adams 1984806122 Rita 3 3.85 2020 Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #2)
author: Lyssa Kay Adams
name: Rita
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #3)]]> 50972370
Computer genius Noah left his rebellious teenage hacker past behind to become a computer security expert. Now he only uses his old skills for the right cause. But Noah’s got a secret: He’s madly in love with Alexis. When she asks for his help, he wonders if the timing will ever be right to confess his crush.

Noah’s pals in The Bromance Book Club are more than willing to share their beloved “manuals� to help him go from bud to boyfriend. But he must decide if telling the truth is worth risking the best friendship he’s ever had.

A hacktivist and a cat café owner decode the friend zone in this romantic comedy from the author of Undercover Bromance.]]> 345 Lyssa Kay Adams 1984806130 Rita 3 3.85 2020 Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #3)
author: Lyssa Kay Adams
name: Rita
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

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

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

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

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Rita 5 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Rita
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves:
review:
Love watching mittens fall in love. ❤️
]]> <![CDATA[Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 Rita 3 3.66 2005 Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Rita
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/08
date added: 2024/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dungeons and Drama (Dungeons and Drama, #1)]]> 160047094
Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...]]> 304 Kristy Boyce 0593647017 Rita 2 4.14 2024 Dungeons and Drama (Dungeons and Drama, #1)
author: Kristy Boyce
name: Rita
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Don't Want You Like a Best Friend (Mischief & Matchmaking, #1)]]> 127823335 A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!

Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.

Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.

“Let’s get them together,� she says.

It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.

“It’ll be easy� she says.

There’s just…one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.

But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?

Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.

Beth’s not mature enough for this�

Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancé.

That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.]]> 368 Emma R. Alban 006331200X Rita 2 3.77 2024 Don't Want You Like a Best Friend (Mischief & Matchmaking, #1)
author: Emma R. Alban
name: Rita
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![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 Rita 5 4.61 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Rita
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails, #1)]]> 112974914 Sail the magical high seas with this first book in a new sexy fantasy romance series from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash-hit Neon Gods.

Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their group or die.

Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his pirate crew are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.

But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, danger escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price....]]> 320 Katee Robert 0593639081 Rita 3 It just sort of...ends huh? 3.24 2023 Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails, #1)
author: Katee Robert
name: Rita
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves:
review:
It just sort of...ends huh?
]]> <![CDATA[Sun of Blood and Ruin (Sun of Blood and Ruin, #1)]]> 70240500
A new legend begins...

In sixteenth-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule.

To all who know her, Leonora de Las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.

No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. Leonora's charade is tragically good, and with magic running through her veins, she is nearly invincible. Nearly. Despite her mastery, she is destined to die young in battle, as predicted by a seer.

When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora--and therefore Pantera--is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end. Knowing she is doomed to a short life, she is tempted to take the former option. But the legendary Pantera is destined for more than an early grave, and once she discovers the truth of her origins, not even death will stop her.]]> 384 Mariely Lares Rita 0 to-read 3.18 2024 Sun of Blood and Ruin (Sun of Blood and Ruin, #1)
author: Mariely Lares
name: Rita
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1)]]> 65673016 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 17 Shannon Chakraborty Rita 5 4.24 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1)
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: Rita
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves:
review:
Magical pirates with joint pain. ✨️
]]> <![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

]]> 360 Brynne Weaver Rita 3 Ew. 4.00 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Rita
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/03/08
shelves:
review:
Ew.
]]> <![CDATA[Sanctuary of the Shadow (Elemental Emergence, #1)]]> 61432205 A Refinery29 Most Anticipated Book of 2024

"Ascher's latest is a fantasy romance that has everything nice—a hot love interest, a relatable main character, female friendship—and plenty of (consensual) spice." ―Booklist

Some follow their destiny.
Others fall for it.

For humans, Salizar’s is a place of mystery and wonder. For Harrow, it’s a place to hide from those who slaughtered her entire clan. A haven where she can disguise both her abilities and who she really is.

Until he arrives.

He has no recollection of who—or even what—he is. He only knows that he’s a monster, with wings and powerful abilities never seen before. But beneath the layers of rage and isolation, one glimpse into those inky black eyes reveals a soul that calls out to the loneliness in Harrow.

And so she chooses him.

She is drawn to the mystery of him, her unquenchable need for his kiss. And as powerful enemies align and conspire against them, Harrow knows their only hope is escape.

Now, with every secret she unlocks from his past, a shadow from her own whispers free—luring enemies who will stop at nothing to get their final revenge on Harrow. And she’s given them the perfect weapon…because her winged beast is not what he seems.

But maybe it’s time they finally learn—neither is she.]]> 400 Aurora Ascher 1649373112 Rita 3 2.88 2024 Sanctuary of the Shadow (Elemental Emergence, #1)
author: Aurora Ascher
name: Rita
average rating: 2.88
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fractured Void (Twilight Imperium #1)]]> 52729070
Captain Felix Duval and the crew of the Temerarious quietly patrol a remote Mentak Coalition colony system where nothing ever happens. But when they answer a distress call from a moon under attack, that peaceful existence is torn apart. They rescue a scientist, Thales, who’s developing revolutionary technology to create new wormholes. He just needs a few things to make it fully operational� and now, ordered to aid the scientist, the Temerarious is targeted by two rival black-ops teams intent on reacquiring Thales. Can Felix trust Thales? Or is this a conspiracy to tip the balance of power in the galaxy forever?]]> 352 Tim Pratt 1839080469 Rita 3 3.57 2020 The Fractured Void (Twilight Imperium #1)
author: Tim Pratt
name: Rita
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)]]> 60714999 Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always � always � guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown� and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone � but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue, perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.]]> 504 Carissa Broadbent Rita 5 4.30 2022 The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: Rita
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Bride (Bride, #1) 181344829 A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was�.

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.]]> 410 Ali Hazelwood Rita 5 3.98 2024 Bride (Bride, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Rita
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[He Who Drowned the World (The Radiant Emperor, #2)]]> 63132362
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband―and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.

Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history―and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.

All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear…]]> 486 Shelley Parker-Chan 1250621836 Rita 4 4.22 2023 He Who Drowned the World (The Radiant Emperor, #2)
author: Shelley Parker-Chan
name: Rita
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Starling House 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

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

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

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

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Rita 5 3.77 2023 Starling House
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Rita
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/09
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:
Gothic horror Reylo fanfic. ❤️
]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2)]]> 134119076 When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby.

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.

She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.]]> 370 Heather Fawcett 0593500202 Rita 4 4.29 2024 Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Rita
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:
Good, not as good as the first.
]]> Gothikana 57426932 The eternal romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the gothic suspense of Dracula in this erotic dark academia story of epic love from bestselling author RuNyx.

An unusual girl. An enigmatic man. An ancient castle. What could go wrong?

An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an old, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death.

An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses. And he knows the moment his path crosses with Corvina, she's dangerous to everything that he is.

They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years over the past century, Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.

And so begins a tale of the mysterious, the morbid, the macabre, and a deep love that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places.]]> 456 RuNyx Rita 1 WTF did I just read????? 3.78 2021 Gothikana
author: RuNyx
name: Rita
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves:
review:
WTF did I just read?????
]]> <![CDATA[Midnight Ruin (Dark Olympus, #6)]]> 123416326
Charon Ariti has been Hades's right-hand man for years. He's given everything to the lower city, but now he's ready to take something for himself. He's only too happy to give Eurydice a special kind of education…but is her heart really free enough to be claimed?

Orpheus Makos will do whatever it takes to make things right. Once the golden boy of the upper city, he's now a shadow of his former self. He'll do anything to get Eurydice back…even if it means she's not coming into his arms alone. Three hearts. Three futures. Countless ways to get it wrong.

But with enemies slipping through Olympus's faltering barrier to lay siege on the lower city, a trio of broken hearts will be the least of these would-be lovers' worries…]]> 316 Katee Robert Rita 3 3.70 2024 Midnight Ruin (Dark Olympus, #6)
author: Katee Robert
name: Rita
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)]]> 48727813 Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner
Astounding Award Winner
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Hugo Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
Otherwise Award Finalist

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

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

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

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

“I refuse to be nothing…�

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

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

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

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

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 Shelley Parker-Chan 1250621798 Rita 5 3.87 2021 She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)
author: Shelley Parker-Chan
name: Rita
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Alone With You in the Ether 61126612
Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.]]> 288 Olivie Blake 1250888166 Rita 2 3.69 2020 Alone With You in the Ether
author: Olivie Blake
name: Rita
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sword Defiant (Lands of the Firstborn, #1)]]> 62315620
Many years ago, Sir Aelfric and his nine companions saved the world, seizing the Dark Lord's cursed weapons, along with his dread city of Necrad. That was the easy part.

Now, when Aelfric - keeper of the cursed sword Spellbreaker - learns of a new and terrifying threat, he seeks the nine heroes once again. But they are wandering adventurers no longer. Yesterday's eager heroes are today's weary leaders - and some have turned to the darkness, becoming monsters themselves.

If there's one thing Aelfric knows, it's slaying monsters. Even if they used to be his friends.]]> 554 Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan 0316537152 Rita 0 to-read 3.83 2023 The Sword Defiant (Lands of the Firstborn, #1)
author: Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
name: Rita
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Deep Sky 61884842 Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.

---

Content warnings are available at the author's website (see author bio).]]> 399 Yume Kitasei 1250875331 Rita 0 to-read 3.66 2023 The Deep Sky
author: Yume Kitasei
name: Rita
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher]]> 61175640 You're never too old for adventure.

When you’re a geriatric armed with nothing but gumption and knitting needles, stopping a sorcerer from wiping out an entire dragon-fighting organization is a tall order. No one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. After all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell. And everyone knows the Council of Wizards always chooses a teenager—like the vengeful girl ready to snatch Edna’s destiny from under her nose.

Still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. With her son long dead in the Knights� service, she’s determined to save dragon-fighters like him and to ensure other mothers don’t suffer the same loss she did. But as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks and the sorcerer’s history as a Knight, she questions if it’s really the sorcerer that needs stopping—or the Knights she’s trying to save.]]> 370 E.M. Anderson 1956037225 Rita 0 to-read 3.65 2023 The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher
author: E.M. Anderson
name: Rita
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/27
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]]> Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1) 52459864
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.�

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia�. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.]]> 394 Xiran Jay Zhao 0735269939 Rita 4 4.03 2021 Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1)
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Rita
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Fall of Ruin and Wrath (Awakening, #1)]]> 65214365
Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian―royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.

Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information.

When her intuition leads her to save a traveling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning―and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he'll be her doom.

When the Baron takes an interest in the traveling prince and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the prince’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe.

Calista must follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall.]]> 416 Jennifer L. Armentrout 1250750199 Rita 1 Do not read this book. 3.94 2023 Fall of Ruin and Wrath (Awakening, #1)
author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
name: Rita
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
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Do not read this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Ocean's Echo (Winter's Orbit, #2)]]> 59808117
"I inhaled this one like I needed it to live." � New York Times Book Review

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,� is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, but they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe.

Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,� he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.

Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal's escape.

Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space―to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit's traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.

Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they've been faking.

Can two unwilling weapons of war bring about peace?]]> 464 Everina Maxwell 1250758866 Rita 4 4.11 2022 Ocean's Echo (Winter's Orbit, #2)
author: Everina Maxwell
name: Rita
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/15
date added: 2024/01/15
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review:
The strangest fake dating plot I've read. Loved it.
]]> <![CDATA[Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank (Finlay Donovan, #3.5)]]> 194490015 A hilarious short story diving into Finlay Donovan's partner-in-crime Vero's past.

Anyone can spot a window of opportunity, but not everyone can manage to fall straight through one.

Veronica Ruiz is on the run for the first time in her life—though certainly not the last. After being falsely accused of stealing money from her college sorority, she packs up and heads to her cousin Ramón's apartment, planning to change her name and rebuild start over away from backstabbing girls and university drama (and far, far away from her arrest warrant in Maryland).

At the local bank on the first morning of her new life, it occurs to Vero that she'd be a better bank teller than most of the current employees: she may not have much money, but what little she does have, she knows how to manage. Unfortunately, the only available position is a cleaning job and so, desperate for a fresh start, she takes the bank manager’s offer.

But nothing in Vero's world has ever been simple, so of course shortly after she begins work, she overhears a conversation between her new boss and a security guard: someone who works there has been stealing. Seeing a window of opportunity, Vero sets out to find the identity of the thief, present the evidence, and then push for the perfect job. All of which would be easier if her irresistibly infuriating childhood crush Javi wasn’t living in the same damn town.

Offering the insight that listeners have been craving into fan-favorite Vero's past and a closer look at the moment Finlay and Vero first meet, Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank is a can't-miss addition to the Finlay Donovan series.]]> 107 Elle Cosimano 1250343313 Rita 3 3.51 2023 Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank (Finlay Donovan, #3.5)
author: Elle Cosimano
name: Rita
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/01/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]> 331 David Grann 0385534264 Rita 2 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
author: David Grann
name: Rita
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)]]> 60487511
After agreeing they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realize they’re each other’s perfect wing-person in their searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don’t go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.

Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.

Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they both struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.]]> 315 Lynn Painter 0593437292 Rita 5 3.86 2023 The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)
author: Lynn Painter
name: Rita
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)]]> 52381770
It worries about the fragile human crew who've grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they're only a professional obligation, but when they're captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

]]> 350 Martha Wells 1250229863 Rita 4 4.44 2020 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
author: Martha Wells
name: Rita
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Mysteries of Thorn Manor (Sorcery of Thorns, #1.5)]]> 61272184 In this delightful sequel novella to the New York Times bestselling Sorcery of Thorns, Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas must unravel the magical trap keeping them inside Thorn Manor in time for their Midwinter Ball!Elisabeth Scrivener is finally settling into her new life with sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn. Now that their demon companion Silas has returned, so has scrutiny from nosy reporters hungry for gossip about the city’s most powerful sorcerer and the librarian who stole his heart. But something strange is afoot at Thorn the estate’s wards, which are meant to keep their home safe, are acting up and forcibly trapping the Manor'� occupants inside. Surely it must be a coincidence that this happened just as Nathaniel and Elisabeth started getting closer to one another� With no access to the outside world, Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas—along with their new maid Mercy—will have to work together to discover the source of the magic behind the malfunctioning wards before they’re due to host the city’s Midwinter Ball. Not an easy task when the house is filled with unexpected secrets, and all Elisabeth can think about is kissing Nathaniel in peace. But when it becomes clear that the house, influenced by the magic of Nathaniel’s ancestors, requires a price for its obedience, Elisabeth and Nathaniel will have to lean on their connection like never before to set things right.]]> 192 Margaret Rogerson 1665935626 Rita 4 4.05 2023 Mysteries of Thorn Manor (Sorcery of Thorns, #1.5)
author: Margaret Rogerson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2023/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

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

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 163 Martha Wells Rita 4 4.38 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Rita
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Sorcery of Thorns (Sorcery of Thorns, #1)]]> 42201395
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.]]> 456 Margaret Rogerson 1481497618 Rita 3 4.03 2019 Sorcery of Thorns (Sorcery of Thorns, #1)
author: Margaret Rogerson
name: Rita
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/24
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]]>