#KU read

[thecasualbookreviewer]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Egotistical puckboy by Eden Finley and Saxon James

Summary:

EZRA

Partying, dudes, and hockey. What more could a gay NHL player want?

If it weren't for Anton Hayes, my life would be perfect.

Not that he affects my life in any way. At all. That would imply I care what the winger from Philly thinks of me.

Which I don't.

Not even a one-night stand with him can thaw his misplaced animosity toward me.

He says I'm the one with the ego, but he can talk. He rivals me for most egotistical puck boy in the league.

I hate him as much as he hates me. Even if I crave a repeat.

ANTON

When it comes to hockey, I'm all about the game.

I've worked for years to be one of the best in the league, and l've done it without splashing my orientation all over the tabloids.

My hockey image is one I've carefully cultivated, and after one night with Ezra Palaszczuk, I risk it all.

He's cocky, obnoxious, and has an ego bigger than Massachusetts. And okay, maybe he's the sexiest man I've ever known.

We'll never get along. Not when we sleep together. Not even when my possessive streak awakens.

That doesn't stop us from falling into bed together over and over again.

Review:

Enemies to FBW to lovers done so so well.

Both Anton and Ez are such good and complex characters, I went into this book expecting plotless smut - my brain needed a bit of a break and you guys know I love my smut readings - but I was surprised by not only how well rounded these characters were and the clear grow they both go through the book.

Of course the smut was also actually good, so in all it was a well rounded up book that even made me tear up a little! There's other books in this series focusing on different couples and I'm gonna try to get through them before I need to cancel my KU.

[artemisapollo97]

I don't really post on here, so hi?? What's up? Greetings and salutations! Behold! Etc.

I'm an indie author headbutting a brick wall against ✨algorithms✨ so here I am to pester you lot!

Eyes of Violet will be a seven-part series by the end of 2026. The first three volumes are out now, available on Amazon and Waterstones 🎉 I've added the blurb to the first one in the images with ALT text.

I've gone the traditional way with the covers, hand-drawn and painted with watercolours. I am no van Gogh but I am mighty proud of them! 😁

Magic and mystery, 12 years+/YA typically, although my 82-year-old nan has read and enjoyed them 😂

In order:

Eyes of Violet (purple!)

Eyes of Violet: Damian (blue!)

Eyes of Violet: Finn (green!)

Book 4 will be out in May, so watch this space 😉

Happy reading!

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

suguru and his little green tea s/o ……..

[tripleaxeldiaz]

i’m sorry lauren…..….911 novelization?

oh kate i almost hate to expose you to this

blame @cinematicnomad she showed it to me first

[thepersonalwords]

To read a poemIs to see light where there is darknessIs to hear silence where there is noiseIs to dance where there is no musicIs to sing where the only instrument is wordsAnd the stirring, impassioned pauses

A.A. Patawaran, HAI[NA]KU and other poems

[satsuha]

temehika: parallels, the past, and the future

wanted to lay out the parallels between temenos and hikari that i see and explore/explain why i ship them. even outside of a ship perspective i think their similarities and the way they contrast each other is fascinating and i don't really see enough people consider what that might mean for their relationship with each other so here's my attempt at compiling all my thoughts on the topic

both of their journeys begin with the death of a father (figure) but neither are given the time to grieve because jorg/jigo's deaths have much more importance as the loss of a religious/political leader than the emotional weight of temenos and hikari's personal losses... while i don't think these deaths carry as much significance as some of their other losses it's still clear that it weighs on them - but they both understand that their grief is secondary to the responsibilities they now bear.

in both of their chapter 3's they have similarly named banters - although i would say roi's role in temenos' story is closer to the role kura and jin mei play in hikari's, i do think both of these friendships are what formed their most defining traits.

for temenos, roi's effect on him from a young age is very explicitly stated so i don't think i need to say anything about that but i personally think hikari's first meeting with ritsu is what truly set him on a path that separated him from mugen.

something that struck me about the two flashbacks we see of hikari is that we don't actually see many of the defining traits he possesses now, such as his desire for peace, friendship and trust in others. i would say the only indication is how he asks both jin mei and ritsu to call him by name and not by title, but otherwise we actually see him actively seeking violence, even if not for the same power-hungry reasons as mugen.

while it's clear his mother's upbringing had an effect on him, i think that at a young age he was still of the same "might is right" mindset that ku espouses until ritsu tells him about the futility of violence for the sake of justice... and while he treated jin mei with equality, hikari still views him as his "teacher" and not his "friend" as he does for ritsu. even if ritsu's intention when saying this to hikari wasn't to push for peaceful means, i think that hikari took a very different message from it... i just can't imagine where else his fixation on friendship and peace would have originated from.

back to what i said about roi and jin/kura's role in their respective stories... around the midpoint of temenos and hikari's stories we also get to see a flashback of when they lost arguably the most important person in their lives - both of these scenes are also presented as dreams.

roi's disappearance and kura's death are a major turning point in both temenos and hikari's lives and also serve as their secondary goals for their stories: temenos journeys to find the truth of the pontiff's murder, but bringing the church's secrets to light is a goal he attributes to roi. hikari journeys to free ku of mugen's rule, but he also seeks to overcome the shadow that first appeared when his mother was murdered.

i think ritsu and crick's deaths also have similarities, such as both of them not being necessary sacrifices for the sake of temenos and hikari's goals but the paths ritsu and crick chose respectively led to their demise... both with these deaths and roi/kura's above, temenos is haunted by the fact that he was nothing but a passive bystander while hikari is haunted by the fact that he was an active participant.

even their final bosses are more similar than any other two in the entire game: mugen and kaldena are both people who willingly use the power of the shadow for their own gains, only to be consumed and deformed by it for the second phase of their battles.

that covers what happens in their individual stories but journey for the dawn brings everything full circle because due to the reveals of arcanette and oboro, temenos and hikari are the only two whose story endings are now turned on their heads. temenos' story ends with a conversation between him and mindt, who he never suspected anything of, and he's now had to kill her with his own hands. hikari's story ends with him becoming king with kazan looking proudly at him, but he finds out that both mugen and his own ascension to the throne were part of oboro's plan.

to top it off, i think that their failure to see through mindt and kazan reflect a failure in their own ideologies - temenos, despite how his doubt of the sacred guard managed to bring light to the corruption in the church, failed to doubt the people around him enough. with hikari, while his trust and friendship brought him to victory, his excessive trust in kazan resulted in his betrayal. in arcanette and oboro's deaths, we also see temenos and hikari take the opposite position of what i mentioned above - temenos kills arcanette himself, while hikari watches as oboro falls to his death.

to me it just feels that these two are the only ones who have been so deeply affected by the events of the journey for the dawn that i don't think we can take the ending of their individual stories as where their stories truly conclude unlike the other travelers... it feels? like their dialogue with oboro also has this wavering kind of hope that sort of separates them from the other travelers, despite agreeing that the dawn is definitely worth fighting for (you can view them all here)

in the same way temenos was drawn to crick because of his similarity to roi, i think he needs someone who can embody the same kind of optimism and hope so that he can guide them while acting as a foil with his doubt... and the reason hikari sought kazan out first after leaving ku was because he knew kazan could turn his vision into a structured plan, but now hikari is king without someone who can support him like kazan did.

in terms of where the characters end up after the game ends i also feel that temenos... sort of has the least attachment to the "place" the ending leaves him at. characters like throne and osvald are going to wander but for throne she wants to continue traveling and for osvald he clearly has a place to return to when he's ready to come back. castti, partitio and agnea will also likely continue their journeys but that's because their goals in life necessitate that, and similarly hikari and ochette are defined by how much they care about their homes. temenos just feels... like the odd one out even though he says that he needs to return to the cathedral because he just doesn't have that emotional connection to a place or a goal that lies elsewhere like all the other travelers do.

i just think that emotionally, physically and practically speaking... temenos and hikari fit into each other's lives post-canon very nicely. they complement each other in a way where they can enable each other's strengths and limit their weaknesses while also having plenty of shared or similar experiences they can bond over... that's why i like them so much

if you've gotten to this point then thanks for reading um. all that.

[dannirr00ni]

you ever get bored of a song/album but have to keep CONTINUOUSLY LISTENING TO IT because nothing else feels right?

yeah so anyways PPLLEEEEEASE recommend me songs that are VERY SIMILAR to rocky horror soundtrack

and yes i HAVE listened to cabaret soundtrack, will wood and david bowie thanks to spotify queue and i kinda see the vision but bro i need MORE.

[andromedaexists]

you didn't hear it from me but my debut novel ΔΆΙΟΣ (an anti-establishment retelling of the fall of Icarus) is free to read on Kindle Unlimited...

[thunderberryz]

#OutOfContextOctopathTravelerII

[longliveblackness]

Daryl Davis is a blues musician, but he also has what some might call an interesting hobby. For the past 30 years, Davis, a black man, has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan.

He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people.

•••

Daryl Davis es un músico de blues, pero también tiene lo que algunos podrían llamar un hobby interesante. Durante los últimos 30 años, Davis, un hombre negro, se ha hecho amigo de miembros del Ku Klux Klan.

Dice que una vez que florece la amistad, los miembros del Klan se dan cuenta de que su odio puede estar equivocado. Desde que Davis comenzó a hablar con estos miembros, dice que 200 miembros del Klan han renunciado a sus túnicas. Cuando eso sucede, Davis recoge las túnicas y las guarda en su casa como recordatorio de el hueco que ha hecho en el racismo simplemente por sentarse a cenar con la gente.

[thecasualbookreviewer]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When she was me, Marlee Bush

Summary:

There's only one way out of these woods...

Ever since that night, twin sisters Cassie and Lenora have been inseparable. As the sole permanent residents of Cabin Two, their refuge on an isolated Tennessee campground, they manage to stay away from prying eyes, probing questions, and true crime junkies. Just the two of them, Cassie and Lenora against the world. The peace and quiet is almost enough to make them forget what happened all those years ago. Almost.

Until a teenage girl camping at the neighboring cabin goes missing, and the memories come rushing back. As the crime becomes ever more recognizable--they know better than anyone that so-called 'happy families' can be anything but--each sister suspects the other knows more than she's letting on....

Trapped in the isolating, claustrophobic wilderness, Cassie and Lenora must piece together the truth of what happened--and the sinister truth lurking in their own pasts--before it's too late.

Review:

I honestly really liked this book, I think it did an excellent job to create the atmosphere of tension and fear on the reader. I was confused for about half the book and when I thought I had figured it all I was completely wrong but the book kept me captured turning page after page.

The characters are very interesting and keep you wanting to know more about them, doing an excellent job of trapping you between their pages. If you enjoy thrillers I think this book is an easy read and it will keep you entertained!

It comes out on May 7th, make sure to keep an eye on it and thank you to NetGalley and Marlee Bush for an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

[ed1c24]

cora-san? cora-san.

[jupitersmegrim]

The exact moment I regretted giving kudos:

[starkittnd93]

ALSO 7, 8, and 23 for Hikari pls!!!

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I notice hikari fans tend to project onto him/inflict him with whatever they’re going through and honestly that’s so real lmao

Like. Yeah. He really is a great coping mechnism, isn’t he lol <- (DOES THIS TOO)

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Oh shit I was actually kinda scared of receiving this question uhhh

Hm.

… unsure if this really counts as an answer but I’ve seen like … one or two takes in the past that kinda contradicted the point of his character? But that’s about it. I haven’t really seen anything the fandom did that bothered me since then, so I’m not really sure sorry :’D

23. Favorite picture of this character?

I think this one’s nice c:

[literary-labyrinth]

OFF THE ICE by Tierney Rose

OFF THE ICE by Tierney Rose (@halliewriteshockey)

“He would never skate again. Never strap on the pads and get between the pipes and play the game he loved more than anything in the world.” 

————————————

🏒rivals to lovers 🏒forced proximity 🏒hurt/comfort

————————————

🦦Labyrinth’s rating

⭐5 💧 2 🔥 2

The first time I read this book, I loved it. The second time I read it, I loved it even more. Tanner and Ethan are so perfect together. Their chemistry is off the charts, seriously. There’s so much angst between them (and for good reasons), but I loved seeing how they both let go of that anger and welcomed each other into their lives. And it was fun. Tanner is a fun character and his and Ethan’s interactions, especially at the beginning, were fun to read in the best possible way. I loved how they both were always there for each other. I’m sorry but Ethan and Tanner raised my expectations for men. 

————————————  “Since when have you cared what I thought?” “Since you made me chicken soup.”

[satsuha]