#Reading Recap

[thereadingmoon]

Cover Art by littlestpersimmon!

main genres: queer, SF/F, BIPOC, horror, graphic novels

favorites: How Long 'til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin, Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui, Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

last year, I told myself I'd read more from writers of color, and i'm still working on that! 49 out of 115 books I read this year were written by writers of color, and they were predominantly east asian. i also want to read more disabled fiction.

other than that, i need to stop forcing myself to read to fill up space, boredom, or silence. i can really feel the fatigue coming onto me! i'm glad i read a lot this year, but i need to avoid overloading myself.

[makimacult]

assorted stuff i read — jan-may 2025

been planning to make a recap post like this if just for my own reference for a while. anyways, this has been kind of a weird reading year for me... i've read a lot of danmei, finished very little manga (apart from serialised stuff i'm following) and reread a couple of faves. mostly i've just been reading stuff that appeals to my id (i dont mean that as a diss. i love a book that will match my freak) but i hope i'll be able to get through more non-fiction as the year continues.

the list till now:

americano exodus — park ji-eun

the winter prince — elizabeth wein

lady midnight — cassandra clare

thousand autumns — meng xi shi

devil venerable also wants to know — cyan wings

married thrice to a salted fish — bi ka bi

i can do it — jiang zi bei

immoral sex — anthology

captive prince & prince's gambit — cs pacat (reread)

the game of kings — dorothy dunnett (reread)

1. americano exodus — it's a pretty long webtoon about a magical girl boy who has to pretend to be a girl because of convoluted fantasy politics reasons and also presumably the author's own kink. messy storytelling at parts, but the abusive dynamic between the protagonist and his mother was very well-executed. the art and fight scenes are great, it's got well-developed female characters and lots of whump for our main guy. im ngl towards the end it felt obvious the author wanted to wrap it up quickly; the plot got messy but the emotional threads were satisfactory. it'll be catnip to people who like sexy evil moms and forcefem.

2. the winter prince — i came into this expecting one thing and got something else entirely. so i've been an arthuriana head since i was... 9? and read roger lancelyn's greene's king arthur. and i knew the winter prince was about mordred, but it also melds together elements from welsh myths (specifically the mabinogion iirc). it takes all these influences and does its own, very remarkable thing. it's about mordred and it's about familial abuse (in general, and also specifically incestuous abuse) and trying to be better than the monster everyone thinks you are/is trying to make you into. excellent prose, some of my favourite first person pov, a very well done creeping sense of dread.

3. lady midnight — i would not have read this if it was not for @iridescentscarecrow 🤧 (take responsibility!) and im grateful they told me about the dark artifices, bc i haven't read cass clare since i was in middle school and ended up pleasantly surprised by lady midnight. i think it helps that the emotional core of the book — to me, at least — is about the blackthorn family. it's very indulgently ya, but it's good at what it does, i liked all the tropes and the way they came together. it's like a comforting predictable meal, still delicious and kind of nostalgic.

4. thousand autumns — i literally inhaled all the volumes one after another. i'm kind of surprised by thousand autumns' rep for being... boring? too heavy on politics? because precisely my favourite thing is how connected both yan wushi and shen qiao are to the world around them, how their ideologies form their personalities and therefore result in their clashes against each other. this was just such satisfying wuxia — great fights, heartpounding descriptions, aura farming off the charts, and to cap it all off, a tense enemies to strangers to friends to estranged to ??? to everyone-thinks-we're-lovers relationship. i'm so fond of this book, it really is a treat. with that said, there were some plot points i kind of eyerolled at, even tho i did get what they were aiming to build towards... so while i do love thousand autumns, i guess i have minor quibbles with it. i'm excited to see how meng xi shi's writing develops in peerless.

5. devil venerable also wants to know — this book is a comedy and a clever metanarrative poking holes at narrative conventions and tropes (specifically found in web novels) and it's also freak4freak liege lord/his right-hand man yaoi. and it's got such charming side characters. dvawtk is fun and funny and at 81 chapters, pretty short! i liked it a lot and binge read it in one afternoon.

6. married thrice to a salted fish — i wanted to like mtsf so bad, and i actually do love a lot of elements in it. i like how ruthless the main ship is, i love our petty protagonist, the kind of guy who'll take a life for an eye, i think its a creative take on transmigration tropes, but something i did not like was how... unthreatening the antagonists felt. i think its to showcase the appeal of the main ship being a power couple? but i like to see my power couples struggle. mtsf felt flat to me; i'll try to revisit it when the official tl comes out and see if my opinion changes.

7. i can do it — it's an e-sports danmei, about professional league of legends players. the author is so good at writing interpersonal interactions that are funny, awkward and feel so real. im ngl it feels like... a sports anime with a canon yaoi main storyline built into it? i have never played league of legends in my life and do not plan to it, but the author writes the matches so interestingly... and putting aside the structure, the romance sidesteps all annoying senpai/kouhai, idol/fan cliches by making the protagonist have friends, interests and a life apart from his admiration of the love interest; and their romance ended up just being really sweet with enough umm... brat taming? to keep things interesting.

8. immoral sex — yeah this is a yaoi anthology with three dark short stories; i specifically loved doku to sex by harada (if you've read harada before you know her mixture of psychological horror and unrepentant filth), but the other two stories were pretty fun too. cw for noncon, incest and monsterfucking.

9. captive prince & prince's gambit — i actually have reread the whole capri trilogy before, i think this might actually be my third reread? literally have nothing to say except maybe a nuclear fujoshi event happened inside my mind. i feel like capri gets an outsized rep for debauchery bc a lot of people outside the... 2010s slash idfic sphere read it? anyways. gotta love fiction where the author is just unapologetically constructing scenarios to explore their kinks with their barbie dolls.

10. the game of kings — honestly reread this because i was pushing @ciaran into reading it and wanted to refresh my memory... i feel like this has to be one of my fave books ever. i ended up rereading the whole thing over a day and a half and it felt like i had a comfortable warm bath. i love how unapologetic dorothy dunnett is with her style. i feel like i could be given a paragraph of her writing mixed in with dozens of other snippets and still be able to identify her. love the ensemble cast, the incisive multiple perspectives, the shenanigans, the politics and plotting, the family issues, and of course... the legend himself. i'm probably gonna reread it and gush about it again in a year lbr.

[composerbutnevercomposed]

Reading Recap - March

This month I read 5 books total: The Night Circus, Legendborn, Bloodmarked, Oathbound, and Butcher & Blackbird. I feel like I’ve been getting a lot of 5 star reads recently, and I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been picking well, or I’m just easy to please lol.

** Spoilers Ahead! **   

The Night Circus - ★★★★★

Wow! What a great book, let’s start off with that. I picked this up on a whim, cuz I kept hearing it’s a “modern classic,” and everyone was right! It’s a solid piece of fantasy, and I recommend it to anyone who’s looking for something different, yet familiar in the genre. I really disagree with people saying this book is “no plot, just vibes” as I feel it’s clearly building to it’s ending all the way throughout. When we find out Isobel is the reason everything’s been so balanced and harmonious in the circus, and we as the reader know everything’s about to fall apart once she stops intervening? Hell yea! And I really like Celia and Marco together, it was love at first sight that felt “believable.” I’m not entirely sure what inspirations Erin Morgenstern turned to when writing, but I couldn’t help but draw comparison to The Master and Margarita; it’s approach to magical realism reminded me a lot of it, and the ending of the book (”I don’t want a story you create from here,” he taps his temple, “I want a story that comes from here,”) is incredibly reminiscent of the famous “manuscripts don’t burn” quote from the novel.

The only thing I have about giving it 5 stars is I feel after reading the Legendborn cycle directly after is that it didn’t stick with me as much as that series did? I don’t know, part of me wants to bump it down a star in Goodreads after the fact, but I also don’t feel like I should “punish” a book that I did actually enjoy because of comparison. Either way, I’ve picked up the Starless Sea since I enjoyed Erin Morgenstern’s writing so much.

The Legendborn Cycle - ★★★★★

Individual Ratings:

Legendborn - ★★★★½

Bloodmarked - ★★★★½

Oathbound - ★★★★★

Legendborn is a book series I’ve had my eye on for a few years now, and I genuinely am kicking myself over not reading it sooner! I think I said this to someone, but reading the first book gave me the same vibes of reading Percy Jackson for the first time. And, not complaining, but Tracy Deonn’s frame(s) of reference is incredibly apparent within the first book; 2010s YA fantasy but with a modern understanding of why these mythologies have persisted over others (spoiler alert: it’s white supremacy). If you’re a PJO alumnus who was emotionally attached to Nico di Angelo ten years ago, and you don’t come away with a soft-spot for Selwyn Kane, I don’t know what to tell you. 

The reason why I didn’t give Legendborn + Bloodmarked five stars is kind of due to my own personal code when I rate my books; if there’s something that detracted from my personal enjoyment of the book, I take off half-a-star. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love the book (I’m obsessed), just something was needed for it to be a 5. For Legendborn, that was me personally struggling to understand the “calling” system of the Scions. I understood the concept of Scions of <Blank> being called first, and then the next lowest rank, and so-on and so-forth; I just started to get confused when William tries to explain the individual lines and who gets called when. I don’t know why; but on top of the ranked knights thing, I came away thinking that all of the lowest in the line of succession gets called until the first-in-line does? I don’t know, sometimes I get mixed up; and I don’t think it helped they tried to explain the Regents thing in the same breath, and that’s a whole different beast to me. And then looking back, my gripe with Bloodmarked feels a bit petty? I don’t know, I may bump it up to a 5 in Goodreads posthumously. I really was bummed we rushed through how the hell Nick and Sel got there in time to help Bree, and it was explained away in a large paragraph said to Alice in a coma; I would’ve liked to see that. On top of that, it was a bit difficult to understand how Bree came to the conclusion to run away with Erebus/Shadow King, it felt out of the blue (but the impulsive stuff she did at the end is sort-of explained in Oathbound? so I’m more willing to let that go)

Oathbound, I loved however, which seems to be against the grain of how other people view it based on Goodreads. Maybe it’s because I recently read another highly-anticipated, third-in-the-trilogy book in Jan. that I wasn’t impressed with (that has the initials O and S, ahem); but this just felt really really, well-done for a “”slow-paced”” book (which I don't agree with, just saying). It didn’t feel like filler, it felt like expansion; which is more that can be said for “let’s go to fantasy-<insert real-life equivalent culture here> island” book -- I say this as someone who does actively read that series, don’t kill me.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for a training arc, and it felt very much like the Son of Neptune in a sense, with the battling POVs and the dramatic irony of it all. I love Bree, and having a whole book dedicated to Bree just being on her own for once after The Six Weeks From Hell was really great. I really liked being able to see the collision-course everyone was on towards each other, and the ending I think is the strongest of the three books. The only thing I really struggled with was how “different” Sel’s character voice was; which I get is the point, but it did make me miss the Sel in Bloodmarked. But I think Nick’s character development from off-screen taking front and center and just getting an influx of sheer Nick (I missed him in Bloodmarked) more than balanced it out. God, I love those three so much.

Now, about the ending of Oathbound. I really, really liked the plot twist. I thought it was the perfect way to differentiate our characters, and really tightens the strings that tie the three main characters together. I also think it’s really, really funny that potentially Sel has always been a balanced cambion (since we now know he’s probs 51% demon based on the ending); regardless if it's true, the thought that he may have been just acting like that because he thought he was “succumbing to the blood” tickles me. I know that’s probably not what happened, but I would expect nothing less from him lol.

The thing that most stood out to me in the ending, however, was the repetition of “Loving people is a practice.” I know it’s probably just something Deonn wanted Bree’s dad to say, or is the take-away from this book, but the words “a practice” really perked my ears up. I couldn’t help but draw comparison to the idea of practices in Rootcraft, and wondered if Deonn was trying to imply either something about this book, or the future of the books. I don’t know, the idea of Bree or someone practicing Lovecraft (haha) is an interesting idea to me, but I think it’s more about how loving people is it’s own form of magic; and that’s why Bree was able to heal over her soul. But yea, overall my favorite of the three, can’t wait for the next! 

Butcher & Blackbird - ★★★★★

I was trying to finish Vicious as my last book of March (see below), but just wasn’t vibing; so I picked this up on a whim as I’ve heard good things, and man was I really delighted! This is a really cute “murder rom-com” with a lot of fun little bits to sink your teeth into (no pun intended). Without giving too much away, it was really fun that all of the victims of Sloane and Rowan were kind of parodies of the classic slasher/killers in horror (i.e. Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter, Leatherface); and the main characters were super cute and honestly very well-developed. I’m quite hesitant of a lot of “book-tok” books, but this is worth the hype; I get it. I even found myself really relating to Sloane a lot, she’s a data scientist, I’m a computer scientist, she likes to draw, I like to draw, she’s kinda emo and has red nails, I’m kinda emo and have red nails. I don’t know, I could be a serial killer with social anxiety too lol. But make no mistake this is a “book-tok” smut book for sure, and it definitely was raunchy, but surprisingly didn’t fall too hard into the stereotypical “spice” scenes books aimed at modern female audiences do. The only gripe I had is they went to the Omni Hotel in one scene, and I have a grudge against that place lol. I bought and read this the same day I’m posting this, and I’ve picked up the next two in the series, so I’ll probably pound those back as well lol. Good quick read, what else can I say.

Currently Reading

Vicious by V.E. Schwaab

Man, I’m really struggling with this one and I don’t know why! I picked this up about a week ago and only have a hundred pages or-so left, but I cannot get into it. Make no mistake, it’s written well, has great characters, and an interesting premise; but I’m feeling super removed from it for some reason? That’s why I picked up Butcher & Blackbird; I wanted my fix of evil characters but it wasn’t clicking with this one. I’m trying not to soft-DNF this one, so I might just trying and use my Spotify audiobook minutes to finish it off, see if changing the format fixes whatever’s wrong with my brain. I have Vengeful as well, as I’ve had the box-set sitting on my shelf for a while, and depending on how I feel when I finish this I may or may not read the sequel. I don’t know yet, my mind could change. I will be picking up other books by Schwaab, I love her prose; just not this book all that much.

April TBR

This is just a list of the books I have my eye on to read in April, not sure if I’ll even read any of them.

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel - I picked up a gorgeous anniversary copy after reading the first page, I’m obsessed. Def something I want to read sooner rather than later. I read Piranesi, and that was good, but I’m hoping to like this one a bit more

Everything is Tuberculosis - I’m a sucker for a historical science novel (Demon in the Freezer is one of my fav non-fiction books) and I did really like The Anthropocene Reviewed, so I’ll probs pick it up at some point.

The Cruel Prince - I started getting a bunch of Tik-Toks for this out of the blue, and found out it was written by Holly Block (aka. the Spiderwick Chronicles). I loved those books as a kid so I had to pick this up, though I’m trying to limit my YA reads. 

I might throw some lit-fic in here? I have a tendency to just keep reading the same genre until I get tired of it, but I have a lot of Joan Didion books on my shelf I’ve been meaning to pick up. A few of them are small, so could be easy to throw on top of the pile.

[vanroades-iswriting]

Some top-notch indie books that I read from January to the end of March! I've mainly been reading graphic novels (as per usual...) and working through my trad advance copy backlist, so indie fic took a backseat. Regardless, these 3 really stood out from the 50 (!) other books I read this quarter.

Current reads include Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (I love when she stresses me out for 400 pages at a stretch), Cottonopolis by S. F. Layzell, and I'm juuust wrapping up Trust the Plan by Will Sommer.

Lady of the Grave by F.S. Autumn

Artifice & Access (Anthology) edited by @ellatholmes with various contributors (really one of the best collections I've read in a long time, every story was enjoyable and I'm a picky person). Borrowed from the @queerliblib.

Forevermore by @earlronove

[jems-library]

February reads

The fury of the gods by john gwynne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

the dead take the a train by Cassandra khaw and Richard kadrey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Faithbreaker by Hannah kaner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Solo leveling by chugong (light novel) dnf

Rebel witch by Kristen ciccarelli ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

February stats

5 books read

1 dnf

2 from the library

2 from personal tbr

1 from netgalley

2 new releases

Year to date stats

11 books read

2 dnf

4 from the library

4 from personal tbr

1 from netgalley

4 new releases

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💜 Batty About Books' April Reading Recap

❓ What was your favorite book for April?

🦇 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! I can't believe April is done and gone! I had a few too many two-star reads, unfortunately, but at least I found a few gems in the process. Tell me all about your month's noteworthy reads!

📚 April reads included: ✨ If We Were a Movie - Zakiya N. Jamal ✨ Up Close & Personal - Ana Holguin ✨ All Fired Up - M.K. England ✨ Love at Second Sight - F.T. Lukens ✨ Give Me a Shot - Gia de Cadenet ✨ Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice - Cynthia Timoti ✨ Detective Aunty - Uzma Jalaluddin ✨ Quicksilver - Callie Hart ✨ You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat ✨ Love Sick - Deidra Duncan ✨ A Simple Twist of Fate - April Asher ✨ Follow Your Bliss - Holly Rose ✨ Tell Me How You Really Feel - Betty Cayouette ✨ This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone ✨ Water Moon - Samanta Sotto Yambao ✨ Cruel Is the Light - Sophie Clark ✨ Not Safe for Work - Nisha J. Tuli ✨ When the Tides Held the Moon - Venessa Vida Kelley ✨ A Fate Forged in Fire - Hazel McBride ✨ Love in focus - Lyla Lee ✨ Flirty Dancing - Jennifer Moffatt

🦇 That makes 49/100 books for 2025 so far!

💜 What book are you looking forward to reading most in April? Here's to another month of heartfelt, entertaining, and unique reads!

[haleyslibrary]

While I only finished 2 books, I am reading The Priory of the Orange Tree so that took up most of this month's reading... 😅

[screechfoxes]

books finished in the first half of April!

Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys) - finally got to this after my Jane Eyre reread. intriguing, but I didn't love it

Before We Were Trans (Kit Heyam) - very interesting! the writing style felt a little... defensive to me? but that might be because it was more academic than I'm used to reading

Everything is Tuberculosis (John Green) - really well-written, a great overview of the context surrounding the situation of tuberculosis, did nearly make me cry

The River Has Roots (Amal El-Mohtar) - a lovely little fairytale, in similarly poetic prose to Time War. if I had a nickel for every book I'd read this year with a connection to The Two Sisters ballad...

Stag Dance (Torrey Peters) - took me a bit to get into the headspace for this; I should probably reread the first two stories. some great stories though, messy and unflinching

All Systems Red (Martha Wells) - a reread, enjoyable although I absorbed as much of the plot details as I did on my last read. currently partway through Artificial Condition

[rebonky]

my reading from the first three months of 2025 <3

[voyagerone-1]

THE VOYAGER 1 JAN/FEB READING RECAP ★

The Hurting Kind by Eda Limón (poetry collection): accidental tradition of three years to have the first book of the year be a poetry book. i don't even mean to do it. idk, i guess I'm just extra poetic on the new years. really liked this, my favourite poem was the title one "the hurting kind"

Hamlet by William Shakespeare: i always say this and i will say it again, Shakespeare needs his dick SUCKED for every word he ever wrote. seriously what a guy. a masterpiece praised by many. just very beautiful stuff.

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden: really cute i loved the art style. wish i read it when i was a little younger though

Dracula by Bram Stoker: I didn't even expect this to be so good i expected it to bore me and to suck but it was in fact awesome. i love being so pleasantly surprised by a classic. just a really incredible novel and also the best version of dracula ever, no one will ever outshine her

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: yeah i really loved this one too

i usually read way more than that in two months but oh well. i feel like it is all i talk about anymore but school has been kicking my asss. i invite you all to discuss any of the previous books with me and recommend me some also xx

[bibliophilecats]

Read this month: November 2024

November was filled with lots of really good books. And apparently it was the month of initials.

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring (audiobook)

R.F. Kuang - The Dragon Republic (library ebook)

Karen M. McManus - One Of Us is Next (library ebook)

B.B. Alston - Amari and the Night Brothers (audiobook)

Maggie Stiefvater - Bravely

I finally finished the audiobook of The Fellowship of the Ring. It took me nearly 9 months, because I only listened to it when I worked on one particular quilting project (I thought it was a neat idea to track how long the quilt will take to make - I am not finished yet but neither is the Lord of the Rings). But because it took me this long to finish and StoryGraph uses the arithmetric mean (and not e.g. the geometric mean), it pushes my average time to finish a book to over two months.

Amari and the Night Brothers was a suprise. I had not heard of the book before and only checked it out from the library because, well, it was there and I needed some audiobooks to finally complete my hours goal. Highly recommend the book!

And it helped because I have now completed all my reading goals: number of books, number of pages and hours. Thus December is "free reading".

[spiritedstars]

May Reads 📖

Forced Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #4) by J.Bree - 4/5

Tragic Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #5) by J.Bree - 4/5

Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6) by J.Bree - 4/5

This Woven Kingdom (#1) by Tahereh Mafi - 4/5

The Au Pair Affair (ARC) by Tessa Bailey - 1.5-2/5

I absolutely ate up The Bonds That Tie series and really loved it; such good fun! This Woven Kingdom was so beautifully written and I'm currently on book two now so hoping the story stays interesting because I enjoyed it. As for that last one...I think I'm going to just break away from Tessa Bailey. Her old stuff was better but the last few releases have been nothing but a disappointment.

[thereadingmoon]

inspired by @wearethekat's listchallenge, i've created my own checklist of books i've looked at in 2023, rounding it up to a good 70. can't wait to check on this list in a year's time <3

i've also done a couple of others around tumblr and i'll link them under the cut. each list seems to say a lot about their respective readers and i've filled my TBR with books they recommended.

MAIN GENRES OF 2023: queer, science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, BIPOC, neurodivergence

READING GOALS FOR 2024: read more for, from, and about BIPOC. i need to diversify my reading list more.

@wearethekat's How Many of Kat's 2023 Books Have You Also Read? - 4/242 books

@bookcub's Goose Girl Era - 1/24 books

@bookcub's All the Bi/Pan Books I've Read or Want to Read - 4/68 books

@ninja-muse's Scattered 2022 Reading List - 4/138 books

@linus-wickworth's Ben's 2022 Reading Wrap-Up - 11/123 books

@readsofawe's Recommendations - 3/181 books

@ofliterarynature's Books of 2023 - 10/174 books

[composerbutnevercomposed]

Reading Recap - May

I kinda did this funny thing this month where I waited until May was almost done and then sped-read 3 books lol.

** Spoilers Ahead! **

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands - ★★★★

When I realized I wasn’t reading what I told myself I would, I decided to say ‘fuck it’ and read the second book in the Emily Wilde series. And I really liked it! It didn’t start off as slow as the first book, but is that because a sequel where the characters and setting is already familiar? Probably! I enjoyed how this was a very spring-y book, after the original was a wintery one. My guess is the third will be a “summer” of sorts book, especially with the epilogue in mind. Wendell is a charmer as always, and my favorite kind of male protagonist. I enjoyed the addition of Professor Rose, however I felt like the addition of Emily’s niece Ariadne, was a bit unnecessary. She really didn’t add much to the story besides giving Emily an extra set of hands (which is probably why she was added). I’m willing to be proven wrong though! I’m not sure I love what the third book is set up to be, I have a real dislike of “the big ending fight” books and that seems like where it's heading , and feels especially odd considering how low-stakes/cozy fantasy these books typically are. Again, willing to be proven wrong!

First-Time Caller - ★★★★

I really liked this book! A unique premise with a great female character. I really related to Lucie a lot, her opening monologue hit close to home, and I almost fell out of my chair when she said her celebrity crush was Alan Alda (B.K. Borison, M*A*S*H girlie, confirmed). I thought the world was well-fleshed out, and the side-characters were great. Her stand-alone sequel is going to be a When Harry Met Sally inspired book is with the side character Jackson, and I am so excited for it, he was one of the best parts of this book.

The problems I had were with the back-half of the book. For greater context, the monologue that kicks off the whole book is Lucie saying she didn’t want to over-exert herself to find the one, she just wanted one thing in her life to come easy as a reward for working hard in every other aspect (she’s a single mom and a mechanic). By the end of the book, Lucie implies the lessons she’s learned is that love is hard work too, and you have to work to find the one. But that’s kind of not what happened? Aiden (the love interest), meets her magically through her daughter calling in to his dating advice show, and their work partnership that comes from it turns into a friends-to-lovers rom-com, so she kinda does get an easy love story like she wants in the end. On top of that, the miscommunication stuff they do towards the end is clumsy, if not outright confusing. I’m saying that as somebody who still loved the book though. I highly recommend if you want something cute and easy to read!

Book Lovers - ★★★★½

I rounded this to a 5 in goodreads, but I’m debating dropping it to four. Okay, here me out. Here’s my thing with E.H. (not chancing this getting in the tags): every time you open one of her books, you can feel her typing away at her computer with a rom-com movie soundtrack in the background. And that’s not a bad thing! That’s not a bad thing! But I can feel it as I’m reading, and it drives me crazy. Every book starts with the FMC giving one of those classic rom-com movie monologues about her life and views on love that would be a voice-over over a montage in the film adaptation. And besides that, she has a lot of the same tropes over and over. She sees the MMC in a coffee shop, there’s a flirty bookstore scene, etc. etc. It drives me crazy when I can see how the sausage gets made, and I try so hard to ignore it here because she is still a very good writer.

So why did I like this? Well to be honest, it’s one of the only ones that felt different to me. I really loved the premise of the Hallmark evil-girlfriend being the one to find love, and I especially loved she was rewarded for not compromising and staying true to her ambitions. And the cherry on top of was that she wasn’t given a “relaxed,” salt-of-the earth love interest (à la Hallmark), she got her own type-A boyfriend. What can I say, I love a power couple. I especially related to the issues with her sister fundamentally misunderstanding her and judging her life from the outside, but not in an overly aggressive way. Nora's whole thing really hit close to home (did I say that already?).

I also appreciated that the whole book didn’t fall apart in the back-half, which I find E.H. is wont to do (I didn’t like B**** R***, sue me). The conflict keeping them apart was not the relationship itself, but outside forces keeping them apart (duty, family, being un-compromising individuals which is why they're so good together ugh). Does an actually good plot and characters and vibe, but still not loving the prose and the literary devices, make a five-star read? I’m undecided. 

Currently Reading

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

So I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern a few months ago and loved it. I’m still very much enjoying this, but it feels extremely similar to The Night Circus in literary device. For those who haven’t read either, The Night Circus (TNC) has the main story between the two protagonists, interspersed with vignettes about the different circus acts. The Starless Sea, has the main story about a young man, interspersed with chapters of the novel he is reading, “Sweet Sorrow.” I will say, it makes more sense thematically in The Starless Sea to do this, but between this and Erin Morgenstern’s use of "stories aren't just in books, they're inside paper cranes and silk and bottles with the ocean in them, etc. etc." here like she does in one of the vignette’s of TNC, it’s clear she ‘writes what she knows.’ Which isn’t a bad thing! Not at all; it’s just more like it’s a noticable thing, especially after reading her only two novels so close together. I’m very early in to the book, so maybe it will just take a bit more time to get TNC out of my head. 

June TBR

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel  & Cruel Prince!

I’ve decided James by Percival Everett is one of my summer reads.

The Will of the Many seems to be super hyped, and I want to read it.

I would’ve put A Visit from the Goon Squad on my TBR earlier if I’d known it played with form!

[musingsofmonica]

January 2025 Diverse Reads

January 2025 Diverse Reads:   

•”We Do Not Part” by Han Kang, translated by E Yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris, January 21, Hogarth, Literary/Historical/World Literature/Korea

•”Good Dirt” by Charmaine Wilkerson, January 28, Ballantine Books, Literary/Multigenerational/World Literature/New England/France

•”Homeseeking” by Karissa Chen, January 7, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Literary/Historical/World Literature/New York/California/Hong Kong/China/Multiple Timelines

•”Hammajang Luck” by Makana Yamamoto, January 14, Harper Voyager, Literary/Science Fiction/Mystery/Thriller/Crime/Romance/Cultural Heritage/Diversity & Multicultural/Hawaiian Culture/LGBTQ 

•”Rosarita” by Anita Desai, January 7, Scribner, Literary/Historical/World Literature/Mexico/India

•”Good Girl” by Aria Aber, January 14, Hogarth, Literary/Coming of Age/Family Life/Women/Cultural Heritage/Afghanistan/Muslim/World Literature/Germany

•”Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove, January 21, Berkley, Literary/Thriller/Crime/Suspense/ Mystery & Detective/Women Sleuths/Cultural Heritage/Native American & Aboriginal/Social Justice/Social Themes

•”Breath of the Dragon” by Fonda Lee & Shannon Lee, January 7, Wednesday Books, YA/Fantasy/Science Fiction/Coming of Age/Cultural Heritage/Diversity & Multicultural/Asian American/Bruce Lee

•”Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafor, January 14, William Morrow, Literary/Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller/Crime/Cultural Heritage/African American & Black

•”Too Soon” by Betty Shamieh, January 28, Avid Reader Press, Literary/Cultural Heritage/Palestinian American/Women/World Literature/Detroit/San Francisco/NYC/Middle East/Palestine

•”Water Moon” by Samantha Sotto Yambao, January 14, Del Rey, Magical Realism/Fantasy/Mystery/Romance/World Literature/Japan

•”I Am Not Jessica Chen” by Ann Liang, January 28, Harper Collins, YA/Contemporary/Fantasy, Magical Realism/Family/Cultural Heritage/Asian American

•”The Rainfall Market” by You Yeong-Gwang, translated by Slin Jung, January 21, Ace, Contemporary/Fantasy/Magical Realism/World Literature/Korea

•”Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat” by Kim Jiyun, translated by Shanna Tan, January 7, Pegasus Books, Literary/Fantasy/World Literature/Korea

•”Bingsu for Two” by Sujin Witherspoon, January 14, Union Square & Co., YA/Contemporary/Romance/Cultural Heritage/Asian American

•”Honeysuckle and Bone” by Trisha Tobias, January 14, Zando - Sweet July Books, YA/Gothic/Mystery/Thriller/Crime/World Literature/Jamaica

•”I Think They Love You” by Julian Winters, January 28, St. Martin's Griffin, Contemporary/Romance/Romantic Comedy/LGBTQ

•”Blob: A Love Story” by Maggie Su, January 28, Harper, Contemporary/Romance/Humor & Entertainment/Cultural Heritage/Asian American/Women/Social Themes

•”The English Problem” by Beena Kamlani, January 28, Crown, Literary/Historical/Political, World Literature/India/Englsnd 

•”At the End of the World There Is a Pond: Poems” by Steven Duong, January 14, W. W. Norton & Company, Poetry — mental illness and addiction, of migration and displacement, of violence, familial conflict, and ecological catastrophe

[kenna-is-reading-stuff]

These were my favorite reads last month and their tropes 💕