#Hachette go

[alexesguerra]

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life Contributor(s): Kabat-Zinn, Jon (Author) Publisher: Hachette Go ISBN: 0306832011 Physical Info: 0.74" H x 8.3" L x 5.56" W (0.61 lbs) 320 pages "When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 1 million copies to date. Thirty years later, Wherever You Go, There You Are remains a foundational guide to mindfulness and meditation, introducing readers to the practice and guiding them through the process. The author of over half a dozen books on mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn combines his research and medical background with his spiritual knowledge to help readers find peace and change their lives. In this new edition, readers will find a new introduction and afterword from Kabat-Zinn, as well as factual updates throughout to address changes in research and knowledge since it was originally published. After the special tumult of the last few years, as well as the promise of more unrest in the future, Wherever You Go, There You Are serves as an anchor for a whole new generation of readers looking to find their center and achieve their true self"-- Biographical Note: Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founding director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in various venues around the world. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT in 1971 in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Salvador Luria. His work in the Stress Reduction Clinic was featured in Bill Moyers' PBS Special, Healing and the Mind and in the book of the same title, as well as on Good Morning America, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, as well as NPR. he has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions such as medicine, and psychology, health care and hospitals, schools, corporations, the legal profession, prisons, and professional sports. He is the author of numerous bestselling books about mindfulness and meditation: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness; Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life; Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness; and Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness. He is also co-author, with his wife Myla, of Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting; and with Williams, Teasdale, and Segal, of The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness Overall, his books have been translated into over thirty languages. He lives in Massachusetts. Review Quotes: "Meditation is the art of paying attention, of listening to your heart. Rather than withdrawing from the world, meditation can help you enjoy it more fully, more effectively, and more peacefully. In Wherever You Go, There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn provides access to the essence of meditation."-- Dean Ornish, MD, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease Review Quotes: "Want to meet the most interesting, exciting person you will ever know? Let Jon Kabat-Zinn introduce you to YOU. Nowhere else in the literation of meditation can you find so simple and commonsensical a path to yourself."-- Norman Lear, television producer, Los Angeles Review Quotes: "Ideally, meditation is not something we do, but something we live. Jon Kabat-Zinn points the way to this living spirit with clarity, ease, and poetry."-- Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Faith Review Quotes: " Wherever You Go, There You Are is a remarkably clear and practical guide to meditation. This is a truly profound book in its deceptive simplicity and insight. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn truly lives what he teaches."-- Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, Stanford University School of Medicine, author of Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer Review Quotes: "Once more Jon Kabat-Zinn illuminates the simplicity and depth of the meditative path with the clarity of his own wisdom. In this insightful book he reminds us that the grist for awakening is no further from us than the moment we are presently in."-- Christina Feldman, Gaia House, U.K., author of Women Awake and Silence Review Quotes: "Jon Kabat-Zinn has made an important contribution to modern health care with research done at his Stress Reduction Clinic, and in his other work with patients of many kinds. I trust him completely, because his writing so obviously comes out of his own honestly reported experience, and I admire him greatly because of his outstanding accomplishments in a culture that is in many ways antagonistic to the process of taking responsibility for own health and being. This book is a delight to read: full of warmth, love, and wisdom. I will recommend it to our own cancer patients."-- Alastair J. Cunningham, PhD in Cell Biology, PhD in Psychology, C. Psych, Ontario Cancer Institute Review Quotes: "This book shines with an exquisite simplicity and straightforwardness. Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of the best teachers of mindfulness you will ever meet." -- Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry Publisher Marketing: Find quiet reflective moments in your life--and reduce your stress levels drastically--with this classic bestselling guide updated and featuring a new introduction and afterword. When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 1 million copies to date. Thirty years later, Wherever You Go, There You Are remains a foundational guide to mindfulness and meditation, introducing readers to the practice and guiding them through the process. The author of over half a dozen books on mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn combines his research and medical background with his spiritual knowledge to help readers find peace and change their lives. In this new edition, readers will find a new introduction and afterword from Kabat-Zinn, as well as factual updates throughout to address changes in research and knowledge since it was originally published. After the special tumult of the last few years, as well as the promise of more unrest in the future, Wherever You Go, There You Are serves as an anchor for a whole new generation of readers looking to find their center and achieve their true self.

[carriesthewind]

Ok. I am maybe kind of losing my mind just a little bit.

A few days ago, I mentioned in a post that the IA only cares about information being digitized, not about actual digital access. And I mentioned that access includes patrons being able to actually find what they are looking for, and suggested IA did not prioritize that critical aspect of access. But I didn't really go into any more detail.

So someone over on bluesky linked to this write-up of a talk Brewster Kahle gave about using so-called AI. And one of his reported statements made my mouth drop open in shock.

...and then I read further in the article and realized it was incorrectly reporting basic facts around Hachette, so I had to go and listen to the whole speech myself.* (And I want to say, briefly - he raises some legitimate potential uses for LLMs! He's kind of a dick about some of it ("it's up to us to go and keep [Balinese] culture alive"), but some of the things he's talking about actually seem useful.)

*Incidentally, while Kahle doesn't lie about the ALA brief in the speech, he absolutely misleads about the nature and facts of the case and deliberately omit the part of the story where the IA decided to suspend the one-to-one owned-to-loan ratio thing, despite repeatedly emphasizing that one-to-one was what the IA was doing with their lending program.

And oh my god. He really said what the article reports. (This portion starts around 20:10.)

He says that the IA has scanned over 18,000 periodicals. And that they used to have professional librarians manually create descriptions of the periodicals in order to catalog them. (Sidenote: there are existing directories, but he describes their licensing terms as "ridiculous." This is not a field I know much about, but I spoke to one person who agreed, though for different reasons. His reason is that you can only license, not purchase, the directory descriptions. The person I spoke to was instead focused on the prices demanded for the licenses. Regardless, the idea of creating an open, free directory seems both like an incredible amount of work and an amazing resource...if it was accurate.)

But according to Kahle, it took 45 minutes to an hour to create a description and catalog each periodical.

And so now, instead, they're using AI to make the descriptions and so it only takes 7-10 minutes!

"And yes it hallucinates, and it has some problems, and whatever — but it’s a lot faster than having to write it yourself!"

Oh. My god.

Just.

YOU ARE KNOWINGLY INTRODUCING AI HALLUCINATIONS INTO YOUR CATALOG?!

(And yes, he says that they are "confirmed by a librarian" but it can't really be, not if it's only taking 7-10 minutes! Maybe the librarian can do a quick check for super obvious errors, but actually checking a AI's summary work requires actually going back to the source and reviewing it yourself!)

I just....

I need to emphasize for those of you for who aren't familiar - if a book or article is miscataloged, it is effectively lost. Because it doesn't mater if a library or an archive owes it - if someone can't find it when they are looking for it, it is not only inaccessible, the only way to find it again is through chance. Imagine if you went into a library, but instead of organized shelves (where if even if you can't find what you're looking for, the librarians know where to look), every single book was just piled in a heap.

If a book is miscateloged, it still exists, but it is lost, not truly accessible. And they know that this is happening, "but whatever." Because Brewster Kahle doesn't actually care about real, practical, digital access. (Much less non-digital access.)

(And then to top it off, he goes on to criticize the Library of Congress for not being "access oriented.")

I just. 18,000 periodicals. And they've knowing, recklessly lost who knows how many of them. I feel like crying.

18,000 periodicals.

[skyfallscotland]

I’m tired and sore and had to take my emergency med ($40 per pill because I still don’t have my regular one since the postal service lost the prescription, RIP) but I did have a lovely day today at a convention with a friend!

I’m kinda bummed because I knooooow I’m not going to finish my work (working title: untethered??) for the final day of riorgail week, but I guess that’s just how the cookie sadly crumbles 🥺

Anyway, I just wanted to share my little haul! I got the arc(s) for free from Hachette, paid a lotta dosh for the Silver Elite special edition with the foiled edges (so I hope I like it!!) and bought the cutest bookshelf sign and some stickers (mentally the illest—so real!!).

We didn’t do the Audible escape room, though the set up was the cutest, but I did go to some author panels and have pizza for breakfast (it’s basically toast, no?) 🥲💖

Happy weekend! 💖

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Whisper in the Wind by Luke Arnold

(available on Amazon, Walmart, Target and Bookshop)

Description

The fourth installment of Luke Arnold’s Fetch Phillips series, Whisper in the Wind, takes readers to a very different Sunder City. One where government corruption is rampant and tensions are rising.

Fetch is done being a hero. Once a detective, all he wants now is to run his cafe in peace. Sunder City is still recovering from the sudden and violent end of magic, and if one man can’t solve all its problems, he can at least stop some people going hungry. But when a kid on the run shelters in Fetch’s cafe, and a chain of gruesome murders begins among Sunder’s high and mighty, trouble is brought to Fetch’s door. 

There’s a word whispered on the wind, and that word is revolution…

Source: Hachette Book Group

[spectrometrie]

the amount of takes i see about the internet archive being the actual "bad guy" in that hachette lawsuit because it's supposedly piracy. you people are cops. it's insane. "go to your local library pwease uwu" bitch ? have you considered the whole world is not stenton, ohio or whatever the fuck jesus christ

[theoutcastrogue]

A copyright lawsuit filed by several major publishers puts the future of the Internet Archive's scan-and-lend library at risk. In a recent appeal, the non-profit organization argued that its solution is protected fair use and critical to preserving digital books. This position is shared by copyright scholars, the Authors Alliance, and other supporters now backing IA in court.

The Internet Archive (IA) is a non-profit organization that aims to preserve digital history for generations to come. The digital library is a staunch supporter of a free and open Internet and began meticulously archiving the web over a quarter century ago.

In addition to archiving the web, IA also operates a library that offers a broad collection of digital media, including books. Staying true to the centuries-old library concept, IA patrons can also borrow books that are scanned and digitized in-house.

Publishers vs. Internet Archive

The self-scanning service is different from the licensing deals other libraries enter into. Not all publishers are happy with IA’s approach which triggered a massive legal battle two years ago.

Publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley, and Penguin Random House filed a lawsuit, equating IA’s controlled digital lending (CDL) operation to copyright infringement. Earlier this year a New York Federal court concluded that the library is indeed liable for copyright infringement.

The Court’s decision effectively put an end to IA’s self-scanning library, at least for books from the publishers in suit. However, IA is not letting this go without a fight and last week the non-profit filed its opening brief at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, hoping to reverse the judgment.

Support from Authors Alliance

IA doesn’t stand alone in this legal battle. As the week progressed, several parties submitted amicus curiae briefs to the court supporting IA’s library. This includes the Authors Alliance.

The Authors Alliance represents thousands of members, including two Nobel Laureates, a Poet Laureate of the United States, and three MacArthur Fellows. All benefit from making their work available to a broad public.

If IA’s lending operation is outlawed, the authors fear that their books would become less accessible, allowing the major publishers to increase their power and control. The Alliance argues that the federal court failed to take the position of authors into account, focusing heavily on the publishers instead. However, the interests of these groups are not always aligned.

“Many authors strongly oppose the actions of the publishers in bringing this suit because they support libraries and their ability to innovate. Authors rely on libraries to reach readers and many are proud to have their works preserved and made available through libraries in service of the public.

“Because these publishers have such concentrated market power […], authors that want to reach wide audiences rarely have the negotiating power to retain sufficient control from publishers to independently authorize public access like that at issue here,” the Alliance adds.

This critique from the authors is not new. Hundreds of writers came out in support of IA’s digital book library at an earlier stage of this lawsuit, urging the publishers to drop their case. [...]

Copyright Scholars Back IA

In a separate amicus brief, several prominent legal and copyright scholars, many of whom hold professor titles, raise similar arguments. They believe that IA’s lending system is not that different from the physical libraries that are an integral part of culture.

“Libraries have always been free under copyright law to lend materials they own as they see fit. This is a feature of copyright law, not a bug,” the brief reads.

What is new here, is that publishers now assert full control over how their digital books are treated. Instead of allowing libraries to own copies, they have to license them, which makes it impossible to add them to the permanent archive.

“The major publishers refuse to sell digital books to libraries, forcing them to settle for restrictive licenses of digital content rather than genuine ownership. Moreover, publishers insist they can prevent libraries from scanning their lawfully purchased physical books and lending the resulting digital copies.” [...]

[mootmead]

Hobby journal : I bought this lovely girl while Hachette Age of Sigmar was still in stores, mostly because I don't have much 28mm ladies. But I discovered that I didn't really like Stormcast aesthetics and mostly hated her hair piece. Anyway, a good conversion for the Adeptus Nautilus and she's good to go.

[saintmichale]

Open for Beta Reader/Editorial Work

Hi everyone! As a lot of have probably gathered by now, I was recently laid off from my job as in editor from a Hachette Book Group imprint. While this is a real turn of events, I'm taking this time to fully open up my roster for any and all editorial work

I've been in trade publishing for four years, and have a BA in Editing and Publishing. At my previous jobs I did developmental, substantive, and copy editing, as well as proofreading and copy writing. Preferred genres are fiction, graphic novel/comic, creative non-fiction, gift titles, children's literature, and poetry (fan-fiction included, of course).

Rates

$10/10,000 words...........Down and dirty proofread (a quick pass looking for grammar and spelling mistakes).

$20/10,000 words...........Full proofread (a full comb through of the document).

$40............ Pitch review. Looking to pitch your manuscript to publisher? Have your selected pages and pitch document reviewed and given feedback by someone who has been on the inside!

$25/10,000 words..........Developmental pass. A look at the big things like plot, characterization, and flow.

$50/10,000 words......... The works. One round each of developmental, substantive, and proofreading.

*for graphic novels/comics/visual arts, rates go by page.

Please consider spreading this around so that I can get better reach, thank you!

[tanadrin]

may I share what is driving me crazy about the IA vs Hachette case as-received-by-tumblr

it’s that people are talking about it like it’s an expansion of copyright law or the removal of a legal right that we had. But—and tbc up front, this is separate from the question of what SHOULD or shouldn’t be legal, or whether IP should exist whatsoever, you are of course going to have different ideas on this depending on your opinion there—the IA never had the legal right to do what they were doing, and they lost the case and appeal because their defense was “yes we did.” there are rights the publishers and authors had that have been enforced, and “we [the IA or its users] think they shouldn’t” just isn’t a legal defense! there’s no chance it would succeed! nothing has been created or taken away here, they were doing something illegal (again separate from the question of right and wrong) in such an obvious flagrant way that the rights holders could no longer overlook it, and now they’ve been ordered to stop bc the people with the rights to stop them sued.

i haven’t yet seen the rest of the panic cycle from last time yet, that this means the whole IA will shut down and take 1/3 of the internet with it. but if it does surface, I will be ready to point out that they were only doing this illegal program that they’ve been ordered to stop for the past 3-4 years. if, in that short span of time, they have made the flagrantly illegal program so essential to their operation that the entire future of the internet depends on them being allowed to continue to do it, then that makes the IA not really look like goodguy guardians of knowledge!

there IS a piece of this that is def about publisher greed, which is that they apparently make ebook licensing to real libraries arcane and expensive. if those worked like normal books and the internet bothered to use real libraries then we’d have free books for everyone in a way that the publishers and authors would be fine with. the IA decision is not a blow to libraries, it’s just me sowing haha yes me reaping fuck this sucks.

all valid points!

[hi-there-cat]

Review: Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race- 4 / 5 stars

Six Wild Crowns is a historical fantasy reimagining of the life of Henry the Eighth and his 6 wives, but with polyamory/polygamy. Which is a great premise. I also really enjoyed a lot of the other world-building in this book, like naming their main deity Cernunnos (a pre-Christian Celtic god) and giving first-born daughters the family name as their first name, so that even after marriage everyone knows what family she came from. However, a lot of the world-building was also way more wishy-washy and should have been explained better (e.g. what actually are Henry’s powers?).

The story took a bit to get going, so for me it took until about the 50% mark to really get hooked on the mystery and intrigue that was happening. There obviously is plot before then, but it was more focused on establishing the world and the 2 POV-characters and their relationships. As for the plot, it was rather predictable and nothing new; the magic system based on oppressive patriarchy and misogyny is bad and a lie, who could’ve guessed! But honestly I don’t think that diminished my enjoyment of the story by much, cause I still really liked it.

Now, I didn’t grow up in the English-speaking world, so my knowledge of the historical events this is based on stems mainly from the musical SIX and is thus quite limited. I know the wives’ names, the mnemonic («divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived») and the whole creation of the Anglican church thing. The author explicitly states at the beginning that she’s taken some liberties with the historical facts, but I was still pretty sure that one of the POV-characters would end up dead by the end. And yet the ending still hit like a ton of bricks. In part also because I am a hopeless lesbian who was illogically holding out hope for Seymour and Boleyn to get together.

Also this is tagged as «Dragons» on goodreads, but do not read this for the dragons. They hardly appear at all and play no role in the plot. Since the dragons weren’t the main selling point of this book for me (it was actually the lesbians), I wasn’t too disappointed by their insignificance. Though I do really hope that we’ll get to see more of them in the sequel. 

All in all, I am really excited to read the sequel, whenever it comes out. I hope it contains more dragons and lesbians though.

Thanks you to Hachette Audio for the ARC!

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

🏳️‍🌈 HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY 🏳️‍🌈

Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

QOTD: What’s in your mug today?

[instagram]

Review below cut

Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for sending me a copy of this one. All thoughts are my own.

This was such an engaging story. Slow, but never boring. I struggled to put this one down, needing to know where everything was going.

Boleyn and Seymour are both incredible, fierce main characters, seemingly opposites but in reality just as strong as each other, just in different ways. I really loved how Seymour weaponised her perceived stupidity. She knew that’s how people saw her—as demure and dull and guileless—and used that in her favour. All these women used the way they were perceived in their favour, really, and it felt so powerful to read.

I LOVED the magic plot and all these women coming together to reclaim what’s theirs. I grew to love these women fiercely over the course of this book.

I will say that I think borrowing the actual names that inspired this story may have done it a disservice. I kept mentally comparing them to their historical counterparts and didn’t truly start to see them as their own characters until well over halfway through the book. I think they would have been better off with new names.

But it’s really my only complaint and I am so excited to see where this series goes.

[warhammer40bay]

Warhammer Bay's Introduction

Hello, hello everyone! And welcome! My name is Bay, I'm a 23 yr old gay man who is planning to catalog my Warhammer hobby journey through this blog!

I've been into the Warhammer Worlds for over 10 years now but have yet to really get super invested/have anything to show for it, so I'm excited to start this journey and hope that all you lovely people reading this can help me stick to my word on getting into this!

In terms of my knowledge, I know how to paint fairly well and can parse my way through the lore (I can tell you the gist of each faction, but don't ask me to go naming all the Primarchs and the legions they belong too lol). And in terms of playing the game I know next to nothing!

I'm planning to get started in 40k through the new Combat Patrol magazine that Hachette is doing, as I know far less about 40k than I do about AoS and The Old World. Alongside that, I'm planning to start either an Aeldari or Adeptas Sororitas force!

On top of chronicling my hobby journey, I'll also post book reviews of the various Black Library publications I read (and maybe eventually do a book club if there's interest?), potential talk about Warhammer video games, and repost any funny memes I find along the way!

Already I can tell that the Warhammer community on Tumblr is so different from the community I'm used to (in a good way) and I'm excited to meet everyone! So if you're seeing this and also have a Warhammer tumblr (be it memes, art, or hobby), please give me a follow and I'll do the same for you!

Stay posted! For the Emperor!

~ Bay

[carriesthewind]

your opinion of the internet archive case is ridiculous, not everywhere has as good library systems as the us does. hachette is not going to suck your dick

Genuinely, anon - what opinion? I have put forth quite a number of opinions, analyses, and factual assertions about Hachette and its surrounding circumstances. Which of them is/are ridiculous, and can you point to a specific quote from me so I know what I should be shamed about?

[skyfallscotland]

Shield of Sparrows, by Devney Perry 🐦‍⬛

“You are not a pawn, Odessa. Not to me. You are the Sparrow. You are my wife. You are the future queen of Turah.”

Spoiler-free until the stars!

Ok, so...this is an interesting one! Was it a decent book? Yes. Am I without complaints? No. While that's normal for me as I think you all know already, I think with this my frustration stems from the fact that it's a fine book, but it could have been a great book...in my opinion.

Shield of Sparrows and Silver Elite have been the talk of the town lately and while I plan to read them both, this one came up first at my library (I think I nabbed the audiobook within ten seconds of them adding it to the catalogue—she's fast, she's furious...she always has her phone in her hand...) anyway, I was into it enough to buy the e-book so I could highlight, since it's not on Kindle Unlimited in Australia which drives me round the fucking bend. This continues to happen for us, Hachette sort your shit out please, it's unfair 😭

I saw a lot of reviews before I started it from people online saying Silver Elite is good, but this is so much better, so I had high hopes! I read that it was Devney Perry's first romantasy, so I was expecting a pretty basic fantasy world, but decent romance, since I've heard she has like fifty contemporary romance books published or something like that.

So that was my expectation going in. I figured it would be catalogued in my personal system under 'yeah that was a book' or 'good book but didn't fully do it for me' and I wasn't wrong...it just wasn't in the way I expected.

This was your typical romantasy book and it follows the typical conventions of what's flooding the market at the moment (from my somewhat limited experience). The only thing it didn't have that's popular is some kind of Hunger Games-esque challenge or some trials thank fucking god. It did however hit all the tropes and it did (in my opinion) have a lot of the drawbacks I've seen in other books as of late.

I liked the first part where we started to get to know Odessa (more on that below) and I loved the monsters and the world she built. It's a breath of fresh air in a world of fae and vampires and I'm here for it, so big thumbs up for that. Unfortunately, the romance let me down. My expectations were the opposite as I said above, but I truly didn't buy the love story.

I'm going to break it down chronologically with quotes for anyone who's read it in the spoiler territory below, but basically I felt like it was the same old, same old where the MMC is rude and almost mean to her and she's just...thinking about how attractive he is, but there's no tension. In my opinion, authors have forgotten how to build tension at all and it makes the culmination of a relationship disappointing and unrealistic for me, so, yeah.

I mean, give me the blushing, give me the small touches, give me the closeness, the feeling of security, give me the slow burn please dear lord, I'm begging.

Basically throughout this book, he's rude to her, she thinks he's attractive, and in the end they get together. GIVE ME MORE. You know?

But let's break it down because why not? I saved a lot of quotes, I have a lot of feelings. I have rambled. Get a drink and settle in because this is going to be a long one, I'm going to take you through my whole experience from start to finish—lets get into it.

🌟 spoilers from here on out! 🌟

I remember posting about the book when I first started reading it, incredibly excited because from the jump, in the opening chapters, Odessa reminded me of Remi.

What if I jumped? Would anyone care? No. Not for me. Not for the wrong princess of Quentis.

She's the overlooked sister, they have a fraught relationship but she does love her, she's talking casually about suicide and to top it off she's an artist? I felt seen. I felt like it compelled me.

I wanted to be unshackled from everyone’s expectations for just one godsforsaken moment.

I was going to miss her. And I couldn’t wait for her to leave. Maybe when her shadow was gone, I’d have some freedom.

Oop, there's that extra 's' in there...for ✨worldbuilding✨

Anyway, all my enthusiasm hit a snag at this:

Except if I jumped, I’d be late. And if I was late, I’d be in deep shit.

This line was for the purpose of a scene change, but it felt so abrupt. I think you all know I have Big feelings about suicide and suicidal ideation and how these things are displayed in media and this casual 'oopsy, just kidding' really didn't do it for me and that set a tone that continued throughout the book.

I really feel personally that if you're not going to have your character continue to struggle with mental health issues and suicidal ideation throughout the story, and you're not going to tackle the issue itself—at all—you simply shouldn't include it. It's not a fun little character trait to be tossed in there for plot padding. This is serious shit, please treat it as such.

Anyway, clearly I was triggered, moving on.

“Mae is to be the Turan queen,” Father said. “It cannot be Odessa. She is not capable.” Ouch. Okay, so I wasn’t the chosen daughter, but was the idea of me as a queen really so inconceivable? Not that I wanted to be queen. At. All.

This made me smile.

The entire scene where Odessa is forced to become the sparrow was very predictable and I said to myself during that scene when 'The Guardian' was the one to speak "Yeah, he's totally the prince, actually," because why wouldn't he be? Why write a woman falling in love with a glorified bodyguard when you could make him a secret prince? That sounds vaguely familiar...

So they go off on their little journey. A large majority of the book is spent travelling around, waiting to get to different places and one place we actually never get to. I did start to get a little bored throughout the at-sea portion of the story, but the introduction of new monsters was fun.

Unfortunately what made this part (and most of the middle of the book, to be honest) rather frustrating was the constant reminders that Odessa is weak and smol, and ✨not like other girls✨

Give me a fucking break, please! At least Violet Sorrengail had a damn reason.

“Yes.” I crossed the space between us, and even though I was the shorter, weaker sister, I hauled her into my arms.

Constant little mentions like this and her feeling sorry for herself really started to get on my nerves.

Then there was The Guardian. Could you get any more cliche?

His answer was to lean in so close I caught his scent. It was masculine and spicy, like leather and citrus. It was an ocean breeze and fresh earth and heavy rain. It was as chaotic as his eye color.

We don't have to write like this. I promise you we don't. I want to point out also that leather and citrus and spicy would smell fucking awful together. Citrus belongs in a fresh fragrance, leather and spice do not. Get it together.

(in case anyone's wondering, this is part of me being detail-oriented and when I say my characters smell a certain way, I'm describing an actual fragrance)

Anyway, he's fucking rude to her. We'll give him a pass for this one because it made me laugh given I was thinking about this myself while reading Fearless by Lauren Roberts, where she definitely thinks the safest place to be when under attack on a ship is...below deck 😂

“Do you really think the safest place to be when this ship sinks is below?” he growled.

This one though? No pass.

“Sit down. Hold tight. Stay the fuck out of the way.”

And this???? Can we not????? It puts the fear of god in me. I'm half expecting us to catapult into watery bowels territory. Please, no.

“No.” Wet warmth spread between my thighs as my bladder loosened.

Anyway, monsters defeated etc, the show must go on, Odessa must continue to feel sorry for herself.

Was it me? Was there something I did, I said, that made people inherently not trust me? So what was so wrong with me that no one trusted me? Or was it really a lack of trust? Maybe the heart of the issue was faith. No one believed in me. No one had trust that I was capable.

She must also continue to wonder about the family who (what a cliche????) don't give a shit about her.

Did Father worry about how I was faring on this journey? Did Margot stare at my empty seat at the breakfast table and wish I were there so she could scold me for running late? Had Mae already moved into my rooms? How was Arthy? He’d been learning his numbers when I left. How high could he count now?

Babe, it's been a week. I promise you Arthy can't count any higher than he could last Tuesday, settle down.

And The Guardian continues to be mean to her. Is he right? Sure. Does he need to speak to her this way? No.

“So, you’d rather rot in a golden castle, withering away to nothing while your family forgets your existence? You were nothing to them. Your father gave you away without so much as a blink. Your sister put on a show of bidding you goodbye, but I’ll wager she’s already in your fiancé’s bed. A man who also let you go without a fight. And don’t you have a little brother? Did they even let you say goodbye?”

For me, personally, this is off-putting. I would not be attracted to a man who spoke to me this way but this seems to be how authors are writing MMC's these days. The Guardian isn't as bad as Kingfisher in Quicksilver, but it's the same vibe, you know? Don't tell me to be attracted to someone who relishes in throwing these things in a woman's face. I'm not buying it. It could easily be said with more care.

There's a difference to me, between the tough-love of a character like Xaden Riorson, and the disdain that seems to come from characters like Kingfisher and The Guardian.

I hate you. If he could read my mind, I wanted that at the front. I hate you.

Please, please no. *pencils in reminder for sequel* Maybe I'm crazy but it felt like there was foreshadowing for this more than once and I'm just praying I'm wrong. We don't need it, let's not.

I found my feelings about Odessa to be kind of contradictory most of the time. Sometimes she would say things like this that reminded me of my own characters and the feelings you can leverage and infuse into your work:

She wasn’t even here, yet I was still lagging behind my sister. I was on the other side of the continent and still… less. Would that feeling ever go away?

But a lot of the time that wasn't there and it just felt like Odessa was whining about her circumstances and the fact her sister is 'better' than her. She felt like a surface level character. A character with so much opportunity to be deeply examined but we just...don't, and she becomes an average archetype, which sucked.

The middle portion of the book is slow. It drags, it's not super interesting. I start to regret my decision to buy the e-book somewhere in here. It probably could have done with having 100 pages shaved off, but it is what it is, it's a fault a lot of books have, so I can look past it.

I was cheering internally when Odessa finally snapped back at people and seemed to find her voice.

“I didn’t ask to be married to a stranger and shipped across the continent. I didn’t ask to come to Turah. I didn’t ask to be jailed in a wilderness treehouse. Those were decisions made for me by the whims of men. So you can threaten to take away my freedom all you want, but I will fight you. Every step of the way. Until my last breath. And I will not go quietly into a cage.”

Pieces like this I find so compelling, it's great writing, it's just unfortunate it's sprinkled throughout the novel and not a constant.

He nodded. “Ransom. My name is Ransom.”

Your mother called you what now? 👁️👄👁️ You want her to scream out what now?!

And now I knew the reason he didn’t visit my bed. He’d been in Jocelyn’s instead.

Me, who'd thought the whole time Brielle was going to betray Odessa, only to find out it was Jocelyn: 👁️👄👁️

It wasn’t that he’d chosen Jocelyn. It was that he hadn’t chosen me. Why was I never the first choice? Why was I always the consolation prize? With Father. With Margot. With my tutors. And now with Zavier. What was wrong with me that I wasn’t enough? Hot tears spilled down my cheeks, and I swiped them away, breathing through the sting in my nose. It wasn���t the first time I’d been overlooked. It wouldn’t be the last. So when would it stop hurting? When would I stop expecting anything different?

See what I mean about her character? This hit me hard, I really felt this. It just sucks that fifty percent of the time her character also feels so...juvenile. It gets incredibly frustrating.

That treaty has been in place for generations. It binds countries through royal marriages. You are not a prin—” A prince. “It’s you.” I swayed, my balance faltering as the truth crashed, shattering everything I’d known for months into pieces of jagged glass. “You are the crown prince. It was all a ruse.”

YOU DON'T SAY? Worst kept secret ever, Random—I mean, Ransom.

This is an interesting one because I've seen a lot of discourse about the 'cheating' in this book and how it was a deal-breaker for some people. People DNF'd over this plotline, which...? I don't really get, personally.

The cheating didn't mean a thing to me because I wasn't emotionally invested. The characters don't feel emotionally invested...in anyone. So while it's a fun plot twist I didn't see coming, I personally enjoyed it and I don't understand why it meant a DNF/was a deal-breaker for some people. No one is really together, not emotionally, or physically, so????

Anyway that lead into this:

“I’m tired of asking questions, Ransom."

Same girl, your entire monologue has had way too many ? ? ? this whole time.

Lies of omission were still lies [...] but they were easier to forgive.

THIS FEELS FAMILIAR. What's a little gaslighting between love interests. Don't worry, I'll tell you anything if you ask the right questions, but you have to think of them first. Oh, I didn't mention x, y, or z? That's your problem babe, you didn't ask. You were very clearly treated as a prisoner and then snuck out to go visit another town? You could have just asked, you're not a prisoner!

Honestly, all of this would have made my head spin if I were Odessa...or made his head spin because I would have clobbered him, so for this to be the culmination, it's....ugh.

“When I am nothing but dust and ash, Turah will endure. I do not need a crown. And I have made peace with my destiny. But before I step into my grave, my choice is you.”

This was nice though.

My choice is you. I was his choice. Above all else.

And IYKYK why this meant something to me 🥲

Ok, you've heard my complaints about the romance. Let's get to the smut (don't worry, I'll keep it short).

Ransom’s hands slid along my ribs to my arms, lifting them above my head and pinning them to the door at my wrists. And then he plundered my mouth, kissing me until I was delirious.

I’d liked that shirt. But not enough to keep it on.

Typical, predictable, boring, unrealistic. She's apparently only had sex once six years ago and never again since, but there's like no foreplay at all and he just slides right in there with no resistance, no fuss, nothing. Then he pounds into her for like, I don't know, seven thrusts or something and she's coming. Nary a clit in sight.

Sorry, but I'm so not buying it. I expected more? 😭

Then there's this:

“I fucking love this hair.”

Xaden, is that you?

Why does every MMC need a hair fetish? Why does every FMC need fancy, special hair nobody else has, for suspicious fantasy world-related reasons????

It had taken nearly the entire two weeks to convince him I wasn’t made of glass. That I needed to be kissed. Fucked. When I’d told him last night that I needed to be treated like I wasn’t broken, he’d finally relented,

Violet????

If I had a dollar for every time I read a Red Tower book where the FMC was injured and talked the MMC into fucking them so they could feel ✨capable✨ once more, then I'd only have two dollars...but it's weird that it's happened twice.

rawr

@thecapedbeancrusader you were right, the onomatopoeia really does get to you eventually.

“I wish we didn’t have to pretend.”

Same. Raise your hand if you were traumatised by the Powerless trilogy 🙋🏼‍♀️

“It’s a shock you even have blood in your veins for all the godsdamn blood oaths you’ve sworn. Let me guess. You can’t share the details?”

Literally, tell him!!!! At least we're addressing how fucking ridiculous that's been on page, please. As far as plot devices go, it's fine, but kinda mid.

“I love you.” “Yes, you do. Don’t forget.” “Never.” “Neither will I.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I will find you. Here, or in the shades.”

Holding with other romantasy novels I've read recently, the story picked up significantly in the last 100 pages. I've talked about a lot of the things I didn't love, but there were things I did love about this book, they just mostly happened at the start and at the end.

I loved the mystery of what was really happening to the monsters, where the infection was coming from and what it meant. The questions surrounding her father and why he was so obsessed with their hidden city.

I loved that it was generally immersive, the plot twists were fun, even the ones I predicted. The monsters were fresh and the mysteries engaging. I liked the magic system and I'm keen to explore more of how that works in the next book.

The last few scenes were action-packed and an absolute whirlwind. We love an unexpected 'final battle' situation and I thought she wrote the devastation of the Crux attack really, really well. It was confronting and gory and just the right pace to get your heart pounding. It felt real and I loved that.

Also, me, finding out Brielle actually did also betray Odessa, so I was right on that count too: 😌✨ What a bitch.

I feel like even writing this, I still haven't fully decided how I feel about this book. The writing in my opinion, could have used some polishing. There were incomplete sentences, really clunky ways of writing things, and just general parts of the prose that annoyed me. The writing itself and the romance were the things I thought would be a slam dunk in this book and they're what I ended up liking the least.

Overall though, I am intrigued by the world and I'm excited for the continuation of the story and to see what happens next. I'll pick up the next book whenever it's released—hopefully it will be a little faster-paced than this one, without that slow dip in the middle.

I'll finish this off by adding a little note about the other discourse I've seen on this book: that it's a copy of Fourth Wing. I honestly don't think it is and I do wonder if that's going to become the new "SJM", you know? Getting thrown at almost every book that comes out in the genre, at least for a little while.

I do think, however, that it shares a lot of the same tropes and little things that it really...maybe didn't need to? And given that the two books share a publisher, I do wonder if Devney Perry was told what they expected from a romantasy debut and just rolled with it, building a story around some beats that really hit big with other novels.

I'm not making a criticism of it, because at the end of the day, tropes are a free-for-all and if people like them then the more the merrier I suppose, but I do think the sheer amount of things they have in common is interesting given they share an editor too, so here it is laid out for your amusement.

Someone on Goodreads posted this review and honestly, they said it better than I ever could, so I'll leave you with that:

If you compare this and Fourth Wing, the skeleton is exactly the same. And I'll prove this to you by showing you what I think is the brief that Red Tower sent to prospective romance authors. (For legal reasons, I'm just making this up, don't sue me, Red Tower.) Hello, romance author Here at Red Tower, we know what sells, so we've put together a brief of what we'd like you to write about. Here is what we want to see: The female main character must be perceived as weak initially--as in many people in the beginning of the book must say it at least 3 times, but as we get farther into the book we see that she's not actually weak. She must also have different hair than everyone else and be the daughter of a leader of the kingdom she lives in. She must have two siblings: a brother that isn't seen on page and a sister that is much stronger and more beloved than her. It’d be great if she had a dead parent and mommy issues, too. Bonus points if she speaks only in fluent sarcasm. Her best friend must be a librarian of sorts. The male main character must be tall, broad, tan, brunette, and have a distinct eye color that is mentioned no less than 100 times. He must be a prince and have a cousin that looks very similar to him. He must be infected with some kind of disease that gives him power, but is hard for him to control. He must also be an extremely good fighter and eventually train the female main character, using daggers and swords. He must have a good female friend that is also a warrior, but is not interested in him at all; no, she will like his best friend. We also want her to help train the female main character. The female main character must be brought up to believe that the male main character is evil because he is associated with the death of someone close to her. The female's initial love interest must end up being a bad guy. The kingdom they reside in must be initially perceived as good, but is actually hiding secrets from everyone. The secret must be sought after by the female main character--specifically through her search of texts and books that speak on this secret disease. The kind, quiet guy that is somewhat close to the female main character must die in the end trying to protect her. We encourage you to write sentences that use periods in between words (e.g. "not. at. all" or "what. the. fuck") Yes, you may also use "fuck" however many times you please. In fact, we encourage colloquial, modern language. If you want to change things up a bit, use "gods" instead of "god" for words like "godsdamn." Please, include a battle scene at the end with flying mythical creatures. Also, do try and include some kind of small and sweet mythical companion for our female main character. There must also be a smut scene. You can include more than one, but there must be at least one and the male main character must remark on the female main character's hair before the act. We also would appreciate you limiting the number of queer characters you have in your books. At the end of the day, you're a romance author whose current audience is straight white women between the ages of 25-40, so we have to stay as normative as possible. Aside from that, we at Red Tower, want you to have fun and be creative! Feel free to change the male main character's hair length or make him slightly more or less ethnically ambiguous. All the best, Red Tower Books

I'll let you make your own judgement on that, but just know I'm over here giggling.

Let me know if you've read this one and what you thought! Bonus points if you've read Silver Elite too and have a comparative opinion! 💖

[cam2d]

Praetor-Prime from Stormbringer magazine, sent to me for review by Hachette Partworks. She's an absolutely lovely model, and the painting experience is one I can only think of as "comfy." I also tried a slightly different painting technique for her cloak this go around, forgoing washes and instead starting from a darker red. I think it worked out!

[nevermoorsource]

Hi! Do you know which store to preorder from to get the April release of Silverborn? All stores I checked release either May or June. Thanks a bunch!

The April 30th release is the Australian release, so you’ll have to look at Australian sites. Both the Hachette Australia site and the Nevermoor books site link Australian retailers you can order from. Keep in mind that I’m not sure if the audiobook release date is finalized.

If you’re an international fan looking to pre-order the UK or Australian editions, I’m going to make a post closer to release (by early April at the latest) sharing different retailers with international shipping and the best prices for that. The post will be tailored towards American fans looking to order an alternate edition as they wait until June, but I will keep other countries in mind as well. Stay tuned for that either here or on @wundrousarts 👍