#temple elder priya

[halcyon-hyacinth]

I need to start using Venn diagrams as a way to convince my mutuals to consume the same media I'm consuming

[morgana-pendragon]

delilah green doesn’t care — “a clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love - with all its complications - by debut author ashley herring blake”

written in the stars — “in her debut, with nods to bridget jones’s diary and pride and prejudice, alexandria bellefleur delivers a charming rom-com about a free-spirited astrologer who agrees to a fake relationship with an uptight actuary — with results not even the stars could predict!”

the jasmine throne — “trapped by her despotic brother within the crumbling walls of an ancient temple, princess malini dreams on vengeance. forced to disavow her birthright and her power because of her past, maidservant priya dreams of freedom. in a world beset by wild magic and turbulent uprising, their destinies will become irrrevocably tangled. and together, they will set an empire ablaze.” + the oleander sword — “the prophecy of the nameless god— the words that declared malini rightful empress of parijatdvipa— have proven a blessing and a curse. she is determined to claim the throne fate offered her. but deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight. the power of the deathless waters flows through priya’s blood. now an elder of ahiranya, she dreams of seeing her country rid of the rot that plagues it: both parijatdvipa’s poisonous rule and the blooming sickness spreading through all living things. but she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries. their chosen paths once pulled them apart. but malini’s and priya’s souls remain as entwined as their destinies. and saving their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn will come at a terrible price.”

pride and prejudice and pittsburgh — i cba to copy all that from the back of this one so it’s a time travel lake house type deal with a girl from two hundred years in the past and one from pittsburgh

[theoryofone]

Questions I have after reading The Oleander Sword:

Do the other priests really think Malini should not burn now that Malini claimed Karthik said she must live to fight the Yaksa?

Why is Mani Ara so into Priya? And yes, I mean in all ways.

Why does the Hirana respond to Priya more than any other temple child/elder? (Probably same answer as 2?)

Malini refused to burn and was allowed not to. Why didn't Alori and Narini refuse too?

Malini says her room door unlocked on the Hirana when Priya was fighting Meena. Why did the Hirana do that?

Does Rao know he is in love with Aditya and does Aditya know? Malini says/thinks in a chapter that she isn't going to mention something to Rao that he himself isn't aware of, after a mention of his feelings for Aditya, so does he??

How does Rao know about Malini's preference? I assume he knows given the odd emphasis on 'friends' when he speaks to Priya at Veri. Book 1 says Rao and Malini met for first time for real after Chandra became emperor, which seems recent. How did he figure this out so fast?

Bhumika says no debt Jeevan owes her requires him to accompany her to the thing with Ashok. What debt does Jeevan owe?

What were Sima and Lata talking about when Priya approached them on morning of battle at Harsinghar?

What was the point of the chapter where Swati decides to learn archery? Setup? Badass moment? Someone sneaked into Malini's tent?

Is Varsha and her baby going to be a problem? She seemed not-naive when talking about what she could do for her family via her marriage.

What's in Alor, Bhumika??

Will we ever get a geographical map of the world in the series? (Please Ms. Suri)

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Don't Let the Flowers Fool You

We get told not to judge books by their covers, but I would be a big fat lying liar face if I said that that this cover had nothing to do with why I picked this book up. And then I got entirely swept away by the lush world of the Burning Kingdoms, by Priya and Malini, by the magic systems, and by the Hirana. Let's talk The Jasmine Throne.

So, the problem with trying to indoctrinate women to believe that they should let you *checks notes* horrifically burn them to death for religious reasons is that eventually, someone is going to stand up and say "Absofuckingloutley Not." That is the absolutely fascinating dynamic that the book begins with between Princess Malini of Parijatdvipa and her brother, religious zelot Prince Chandra. Malini's choice to live, to stand defiant, really highlights what is twisted about Chandra. He doesn't just want to burn her. He wants her to burn willingly. Malini is having exactly none of that nonsense, thank you, so she is banished to Ahiranya, the country they have invaded and subjugated--I desperately want to just say colonized, because honestly.

With Malini is Pramila, who's daughter went willingly to be burned, which makes Malini and Pramila's relationship somewhat strained, to say the least. Additionally, Pramila is under orders from Chandra to slowly poison Malini with needleflower (basically a really strong opiate) and try to brainwash her into willingly burning. To take this to a whole other level of cruel, Malini is held in the room in the Hirana where the elders burned the temple children to death (we'll come back to that). So Malini is not having a great time in this book, which honestly just makes her strength in holding her ground and turning a chance meeting with Priya to her advantage and gaining an ally.

Malini deeply understands personal and political power and how to weild it subtly and effectively. She is literally so good at it that when Chandra cannot kill her, he has to drug her and yeet her to the ends of the earth to prevent her from destabilizing his political power and usurping the throne that technically should go to their oldest brother. Malini is a goddamn powerhouse, and everyone knows it. The fact that she extracts herself from two different torturous death sentences--and the second one while being slowly poisoned to death and fighting hallucinations of her heartsisters burning before her eyes--just highlights how terrifyingly effective Malini would be in her home territory at full strength. For all that Malini is powerful and deeply connected to fire, personally she leans very, very cool, calculating, and she knows that too. Malini is afraid that she could easily become a monster like Chandra, just of a different flavor.

That's where Priya comes in. Priya has soft spots for children, her friends, and her brother, which is honestly astounding since she is an illicit survior of the murder of the temple children by the temple elders. At the beginning of the novel, Priya isn't supposed to be alive and has to hide her past. The Hirana makes that somewhat difficult, because this semisentient, possibly evil temple seems to have a soft spot for Priya; it regularly murders people who try to enter it, but goes out of its way to help Priya save the life of a fellow maid who slipped and cane within a knuckle joint of falling to a greusome death. It also give Priya some of the powers she would have had as a priestess to save her life when someone figures out that Priya was a temple child and tries to finish what the elders started.

Priya and Malini's relationship starts off intensely tenuously; they are functionally colonized and colonizer, jailer and jailed, priestess and princess, and smitten and smitten, respectively. "It's Complicated" doesn't even BEGIN to cover this relationship. And yet they talk through it, they bond, and they have one of the best slow-burn romances I have ever read. The sheer trust that is Malini letting Priya control--and slowly wean her away from--the needleflower doses was huge.

Priya and Malini's relationship carries this book, and honestly I haven't been so invested in a relationship in a long time. Both of these women are BAMFs in their own right, but together they hold the potential to change the map of their entire world.

[khronoes]

a small intro to tas' niche book muses:

princess malini from the burning kingdom series

youngest of three, a parijatdvipan princess who was commanded to burn on a pyre in a holy ritual by her brother, chandra, the current emperor

when she refuses she's imprisoned in a temple and fed small doses of poison with the hopes of killing her or weakening her resolve

she manipulates a maidservant tasked to watching over her, priya, to help her escape the temple

malini has been working to gather allies who wish to dethrone her brother and see her other brother, aditya, on the throne

when aditya choose priesthood over the crown, it is revealed that malini is meant to be empress as per a prophecy given by the mother's of the flame

malini leads an army to battle her brother chandra and eventually wins by lying to parijatdvipan priests and promising she would burn on the pyre for their nation if they help her to the throne

she's betrayed by her lover, priya, at the end of the book and is readying her nation for a war against re-awoken gods of nature called the yaksa

in general, malini is very head strong and stubborn but has a way of working steadily around politics. a well spoken politician and leader who can weave together pretty lies easily. she seeks out revenge against her brother and has a craving for power. she is a morally grey muse who will do whatever she needs to do to get what she wants including hurting the people she loves the most or manipulating their feelings in her favour. easily adaptable to any fantasy verse and modern verse follows the same sort of plot except she is working towards taking her brother's place over an influential family business

elder priya from the burning kingdom series

priya was born on a temple called the hirana and was raised among temple elders as a temple daughter

the people of her nation, ahiranyi, worshipped gods of nature called the yaksa and temple ends and children were gifted abilities of nature by the yaksa by travelling through waters called the deathless waters

priya had travelled through the waters once before the temple and its people had been set on fire as per the emperor's orders in a war against her nation

she escapes the burning with her temple brother, ashok, and when ashok falls ill she is left with her temple sister, bhumika, who had successfully hidden her past and married the nation's regent

she grows up a maidservant in bhumika's care and is tasked with watching malini

on the temple, priya hones her abilities and finds the deathless waters again

after helping the princess escape she travels through the waters two more times, reaching the height of her abilities as a temple elder

she rules alongside bhumika as an elder after their nation is affected by a battle and she works to rid their people and their nation of a nature-based disease called the rot

she joins malini's army when she is sent a letter calling her and almost dies multiple times on the battle field

she sacrifices her soul to the yaksa in order to live and is ordered to kill malini by the end of the book

in general priya is soft despite being taught very vicious methods, she does her best to help people but does have an edge to her tone. she's very blunt and not willing to bend to the whim of others but feels very strongly for any relation she does have. same as above, easily adaptable to fantasy verses and modern verse revolves around working for malini's family while trying to hide these newfound powers

noemi taboada from mexican gothic

set in 1950s mexico city

noemi is a socialite who is sent a nonsensical letter from her cousin who had recently married an english man

her father sends her to visit her cousin in fear that her husband's family was attempting to poison and kill her for her inheritance

high place is a house that is eerie and uncomfortable from the start, similar to houses seen in gallant or haunting of hill house

a whole wackload of weird doyle family history is revealed and it is found that the doyle family's head is essentially immortal due to a strange magical fungi embedded in the house. similar vibes to the movie ready or not

i have no real intention of writing noemi in her canon unless someone wishes to but she's super adaptable to all verses but primarily a modern / decades based verse

so in general, noemi is a final girl type figure who had escaped the clutches of a deranged family and their equally deranged rituals and beliefs. she is working on her master's degree and has no intention of going back to high place. noemi is strong willed and a staunch feminist who believes in letting women do anything a man can do, something her father had encouraged but had been looked down on by many others. she is naturally very flirty but does not commit well to anyone, very independent and self-sufficient

[apollo-cackling]

Mini-reviews of all the books I’ve completed this year, mostly in the order that I’ve read them:

Network Effect:

What can I say, it’s Murderbot! It’s cool to see Murderbot explored in the sprawl given by a full-length novel, and ART and Murderbot’s relationship is hilarious and fascinating.

The Jasmine Throne:

[I read this way earlier in the year so assume minor spoilers for this, since I’m not sure how much would be actual spoilers]

I mean. Murder lesbians. I love Malini’s ruthlessness and Priya’s deep-seated kindness. Also the relationships between the temple children, especially Ashok and Priya is. Fascinating. And heartbreaking. The way they’re raised in the temple was the “pain makes you stronger” type, and hiw that was complicated by Ahiranya being conquered and the temple being burnt down, all the elders with it. It’s fascinating and great. Also the worldbuilding feels so rich. I know this is an insubstantial thing to say but I really love the Vibe of the book.

I do remember not connecting all that much emotionally of this book though, and I’ve seen some other folks express the same, but it is the first book in a series, so hey.

Bloom Into You:

I read this 3 times. Within 6 months. Yeah I really love this manga lol. I love the characters, the way it deals with queerness and. Well yeah everything. I felt so alternatively seen and personally attacked in the exploration of aromanticism with Yuu; I love. Everything about Touko, and I love how deeply queer Sayaka’s plotlines are. Also Miyako and Riko! Older queer folks! They’re relationship is so endearing in a “old established couple way, and Miyako’s interactions with Sayaka is. it's great! I love intergenerational queer stuff.

There’s some small blemishes there. I’m not sure how necessary the chapter about Koyomi was, for example, and I saw a Japanese person say the translation by Seven Seas wasn’t. great? Or at least adds unneeded nuances and yeah. You can tell. But even despite this, Bloom Into You is great and I love it.

The Eye of the World:

Unfortunately this is one of the many times where I kind of lessened my experience of reading a book by looking at wikis lol. I like to spoil myself on stories in a specific way so that I know the rough structure/how to set my expectations*, but sometimes (fairly often honestly hdsakjhf) I accidentally spoil too much which. yeah was what happened here.

But still it’s a fun book with cool worldbuilding and cool magic. I saw some reviews that called it a LoTR ripoff and. Honestly I didn’t see it all that much when I was reading and I still don’t? Sure the premise is similar but that’s just the premise and plenty of things, like the tone and what each story's going for, are different? The closest I can see are the Trollocs and Myrddraal to Tolkien’s orcs and ringwraiths but even then 'ripoff' is a bit harsh.

I did have the impression that the prose was a bit too Much, not necessarily dense but with a lot that could’ve been cut out, but I’m also only a few steps removed from having aphantasia, so it’s not necessarily the book’s fault.

*for example there was this one time I was reading a series and there was a curse on the protagonist that lasted most of the series but I was running through the book rushing to see when the curse is lifted expecting it to be a short term thing which. didn’t make for a good reading experience lol.

Berserk:

I’ve read up to the middle of the Conviction arc now, I think? And yeah the thing that everyone says is good is good! It’s the exact type of horror that I really don’t deal well with (fleshy wet body horror) but. yeah the way it constructs Guts’ lone angry misanthropic figure and then explores how he got there is really compelling. Also the Bonfire of Dreams and Wounds >>>

It deals with a lot of heavy subject matter, but I think most of it was dealt with well, excluding Wyald. I question how necessary that was.

The Rage of Dragons:

This book is just incredibly fun. Blazingly fast paced, with a protagonist that’s utterly fixated on honing his skills. The society it’s set in is awful, but it does make it all the more gratifying when Tau flips the castes on its head. It also deals with revenge, not necessarily in a new way, but it worked for me because it’s a theme I’m interested in. It’s not a particularly deep book to my memory, but it’s an excellent refinement of form.

Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest:

I don’t have much to say on these two because again I lessened my experience by looking at wikis (bad, bad habit) but yeah. Well written, with excellent prose (there’s an intimacy to it that I really like), with some really bittersweet/touching moments.

Breach of Peace:

The debut novella written by a fairly big fantasy YouTuber. It’s about as much as you would expect from that description, but it does at least feel like a genuine effort of a new author rather than pandering for money. It’s pretty mid? There are some chilling moments and I remember it being effective in describing gross gore, but it does show in being a debut.

Heart of Stone:

A romance between a vampire and his personal secretary. It’s pretty good. They play off of each other really well with some intimate moments that you can just feel. There’s also a surprising amount of cool lore for the vampirism in this book which is of course welcome. This book is a fair bit out of my ordinary wheelhouse – I don’t tend to read historical books and the romances I read tend to be either contemporary or SFF – but it was a compelling read. One thing though is that the ADHD/autism coding of the leads felt a bit blunt, but I’m not sure how fair a criticism that is.

Kings of the Wyld:

I think this is just a clear case of a book being entirely for not me. It’s a low realism D&D-type fantasy whose premise is “what if groups of adventurers are rock bands, and the most famous one, long disbanded, comes together for one last adventure into an area filled with monsters to save one of them’s daughter” and. I don’t know, it just really didn’t work for me! I didn’t like the pacing – the quest to save the daughter is time sensitive, but iirc it takes half the book just to get the band back together. Also this is a book that’s all about glory and my worldview is diametrically opposed to that + the humour/tone is a bit too gross to me.

I see a lot of 5 star reviews of this book, so clearly a lot of people like it, but I can’t imagine a book that’s less my thing than this.

The Curse of Chalion:  

The Goblin Emperor:

Really cool worldbuilding and good political intrigue. Cazaril, the protagonist, is also such a well written character: he’s been captured to a galley slave before the start of the story, which had a major impact on his psyche. It’s very very satisfying to see this man slowly, slowly learn confidence again. Also again the political intrigue is very interesting but still easy to follow.

The way it deals with queerness is a bit, well there’s many dead/suffering queer characters, but given that it’s published in 2001, I don’t hold it against the book.

A really comfy read: seeing Maia’s deep kindness change the court around him is heartwarming. It’s also again really satisfying to see Maia overcome his neglectful upbringing and become confident in the court intrigue. I saw some folks saying they didn’t like all the complex names and weird linguistics but I’m really into linguistics and I didn’t have that much trouble keeping track of the names until the last few parts of the book (although I was reading electronically so I have a bit of an advantage) so I personally liked that part.

The Darkness Outside Us:

One of my favourite books I’ve read this year. It’s such a twisty, harrowing mystery whose first half left me had me paranoid about everything around me and whose second half is one of the most resonant and moving endings I’ve read. The plot and themes are so well intertwined with each other: you’re pulled through the book by its mystery and the “wtf is going on here” of the it, but then after you’ve read it and its themes marinate in your head it only gets better. I absolutely love everything about it.

Legends and Lattes:

Another really comfy read of an orc adventurer retiring to open a coffee shop. I really liked seeing Viv making friends with the folks around her and improve her coffee shop. It feels a bit like progression fantasy in that way. It markets itself as “high fantasy with low stakes” but honestly the more intimate tone only made the danger that was present more tense. A comfy, warm read.

Ophelia After All:

Red Sister:

Another one of my favourite books I’ve read this year. It’s funny, because I tend to avoid reading YA contemporary, but usually, when I do, I find a new favourite. Ophelia After All is about so many things, Ophelia realising her queerness, yes, but also the way friend/family dynamics can ossify and pressure people to remain the same as they’ve always been, how terrifying the end of high school can be as a harbinger of massive change, the harm even well-meaning parents can do and how to navigate that. It’s about change, being given the opportunity to, and accepting such. Ophelia’s spiral throughout the book is so compelling and tense and the book is ultimately so, so kind.

I find myself forgetting a lot about this book. I remember finding the revelation Nona had near the end about [redacted] to be really cool and absolutely loving Sister Apple and Sister Kettle, both individually and together, and finding parts of the narrative structure to be very cool, but whether it was just a bad time for me to read it or otherwise, it didn’t stick with me too much.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic:

Another book that I found to be kind of forgettable. It didn’t really stick with me any.

Unsouled, Soulsmith, Blackflame, and Skysworn:

The first four books of the hugely popular selfpub progression fantasy series Cradle. It’s fun popcorn fare with a massively expanding scope and fun worldbuilding. The first few books felt a bit slow with how underpowered Lindon was, and there is a bit of an aspect of “suffering makes you stronger” that I’m a bit uneasy with, but overall a fun series.

The Grace of Kings:

"There’s never going to be an end to suffering if ‘he deserves it’ is all the justification people need for inflicting pain."

It, being a deeply political book, can’t escape being a tinge didactic at times – there was one subplot of the book that was essentially Animal Farm – but it manages to completely back up what it’s saying, and at any rate, I prefer this to a book that tries to say nothing, so I didn’t mind too much. Further, while I really liked the sprawl of it, it could be a bit much sometimes: again, the essentially Animal Farm part and Pira. I’m really not sure what Pira’s role was supposed to be.

Cards on the table, this is the type of book that basically tailor made my thing. It’s a fantasy retelling of the Chu-Han contention, and not only am I super into Chinese history, the Han Dynasty is one of my favourite periods of it. It’s this massive sprawling epic with so, so many perspectives. It also feels very Chinese to me in its writing*.

It has this. narrative distance? to it where it doesn’t write many specific events but rather paints its events in broader strokes to characterise how each character thinks. Every one of its characters are unreliable narrators and I loved how the book characterised each and every one of them. I loved so many subplots/characters of the book that if I were to talk about them, this would get way too long, but I especially liked Jizo’s story, the tragedy of it, and how it demonstrated how the Tiro state system fails even the people it supposedly honours as monarchs.

The Grace of Kings is far from being a mass appeal type – it could be hard to follow for someone less used to tracking massive amounts of POVs for example – but I loved it.

The book also has interesting politics (being very feminist and actually raising interesting points feminism for one, albeit still having a cast of majority men). I don’t agree with all of it but it is all presented thoughtfully and gave me a lot of things to think about.

 *mind that I’m drawing from a limited pool of Chinese books that I’ve read

Leviathan Wakes:

This book is one that kind of verges on being not for me. Maybe it’s that I don’t read as much epic sci-fi as I do fantasy, but it’s like I don’t have as firm a grasp on the possibility space of this book, so I have no idea what to expect and whether something is supposed to read as a good or bad development etc. The political intrigue was interesting though.

Gardens of the Moon:

This book and its series has a reputation of being hard to follow and get through but it’s honestly not that bad? I probably have an easier time because I’m reading it digitally so I can use the search function, but it’s really not that hard to follow if you accept being a little bit confused.

I found this book more hard to read in that the landscape descriptions were difficult to parse but again that's likely more a me thing. Thematically, this book doesn't have that much yet, but I'm reading the second book now and that's an improvement immediately made.

The first two books of the Tide Child trilogy. This description might be surprising given the amount of me posting about this book here but my descriptor for it right now would be “intellectually compelling/interesting but emotionally boring”. I found the books’ world fascinating to think about but the plot/overall tension of the books felt disconnected to the extent that I have to actively try to read the books instead of feeling compelled.

Aside from that, the first maybe sixth of this book was a bit slow going, but past that it was so compelling to read. I can’t explain what was so compelling but I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s this sense of slowly expanding into an enormous scope, of all the disparate POVs coming together for an explosive finale.

The Bone Ships and Call of the Bone Ships:

Also I found the worldbuilding detailed on a micro level but not affecting too much of the overall plot. There’s a lot of attention to detail put into the little turns of phrase and such to make them reflect the world of this book, but on the level of the worldbuilding affecting the plot, there isn’t much. Supposedly this is a matriarchal society where women are viewed as more important than men, but our protagonist is a man and there’s not all that much of this that affects him to my memory. This is a fascinating world, and there’s much better characters to explore this world with, is what I’m saying.

I still like them but there’s a lot of wasted potential to them I think.

Yuwu:

(some major spoilers)

This is a Chinese danmei (BL) webnovel and. yeah a lot can be assumed from that. I’d describe it as “very well written in the moment to moment but eh on a macro/structural scale”.

I liked the moment to moment! There’s a lot of good angst and character writing moment to moment. And there’s a lot of setups that are only paid off a hundred chapters which are extremely clever, so it’s not bad structurally in that way. It’s just. We are always with the named characters. We are always only with them, and it makes the story’s scale feel claustrophobic when you step back. Yes it’s impressive that everything manages to tie back to the main cast, but also it makes it feel like this empire/world has only like. 20 people in it.

I don’t know why this story gives me this feeling when others don’t, maybe because it’s a story with this huge a scale and grounding elements yet so small a cast that’s actually important, but it feels like the world goes no bigger in scope than the one we’re presented with. It creates this assumption that the common folks/the masses are unimportant to the Great Men of the main cast which is kind of :/ for a story about the horrors of being a slave.

Speaking of, I’m not sure if the story dealt with slaves as much/well as the talk I’ve seen online said it did. I’d need a reread to tell but in my memory it wasn’t particularly extensive. This book focuses pretty tightly onto its main cast, which becomes kind of :/ when almost everyone in that cast is a noble and this book deals as much with the castes of its empire. Even the few characters that were assumed to be slaves almost all turned out to secretly have noble blood and almost all the characters noted to be extremely powerful have noble blood. The only characters that didn't have noble blood iirc are Lu Zhanxing, Li Qingqian and Hong Shao. It’s this paradox of wanting to condemn nobility but also being obsessed with bloodlines. It feels like it wants to condemn the ridiculous and useless posturing and politics of court but likes the idea of a lineage of people that are inherently Better.

There’s several sequences that are supposed to be a condemnation of mob mentality but also paint the nobles as being mostly principled and honoured in contrast to the vicious commoners that wants to feel morally righteous while bulling someone. (I’m thinking of the part where Gu Mang kneels in front of all the graves on Warrior Soul Mountain and there’s a mob that lambasts him the entire way and they’re specifically pointed out to not be the nobles who’ve actually lost family members due to Gu Mang’s ‘treachery’)

So yeah, these are the reviews of all the books I’ve read this year. The first few are a bit bare, as it’s been essentially an entire year since I’ve read them, and these are probably not all that good as reviews, but I wanted to do this to learn how to write reviews and I’d like to think I learnt things writing this (one of which is not to review books a full year later and to write reviews earlier hdjskahdfjkahdf). So yeah.

The climax also didn’t work for me all that much in that this story has all mostly been about the Chonghua internally, the failures of that system and its dogma, and then you have this massive scale climax where an external threat threatens to destroy Chonghua and it turns into “oh the nobles in this country squabble pointlessly but once an actual threat comes onto the table they all put their differences aside to face this threat like a well oiled machine :)”

I don’t want to sound like I hated this story because I didn’t, and again, the moment to moment was very enjoyable! I liked the experience of reading this story! I really liked the tone of the story and worldbuilding! It’s just once I’ve finished reading it and I gain a bit of distance, I find a lot more flaws than strengths.

[mydarlinginej]

read my full review of the jasmine throne by tasha suri here.

Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess’s traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.

my review:

I adored Tasha Suri’s previous books, so I was naturally excited for her next release! The premise, in particular, pulled me in; I mean, “morally gray lesbian protagonists seeking revenge”? Who wouldn’t be intrigued by that? Gorgeously devastating, The Jasmine Throne slowly unravels a story about fulfilling your destiny by carving your own path.

After refusing to be “purified” by dying on a pyre, Princess Malini is imprisoned in the Hirana, a haunted temple where the temple elders and children were burned. Priya is a maidservant who is eventually tasked with serving her. However, Priya has a secret: she is one of the few surviving temple children and holds a forbidden power that only grows stronger as she spends more time in the Hirana. After Malini witnesses her powers, they become entangled in each other’s plots of revenge. Along the way, we also follow Rao, a prince trying to free Malini; Bhumika, another surviving temple child who wields a different sort of power; and Ashok, Priya’s brother who leads a rebellion against the Parijatdvipan Empire.

I honestly don’t know where to start with my review. I’m writing it a couple of days after I finished it, and I’m still having trouble formulating my thoughts on this book!

Suri’s writing was exquisite, as per usual. This story was like the bloom of a flower, a slow unfurling that culminates in something beautiful if deadly. The pacing perfectly built up the events throughout the book; I wanted to both savor it and read as quickly as I possibly could.

read my full review here.

[alicepink-me]

The New Guardian

Story Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng is an adult in the real world, guarding the Miracle Box in Master Fu's place. She's in love with Chat Noir, but refuses to tell him her feelings. New holders appear to fight the duo and shake up their lives. Marinette makes a tough decision about her future as Ladybug.

Chapter 13: Goodbye

Marinette's finger tapped against the wood before her hand sluggishly fidgeted. It felt the floor beneath her before reaching the front, grabbing onto a bar. Marinette heavily lifted her head up, struggling to take in her surroundings. As her blurred vision faded, she saw that she was in a wooden cell. There was a small light above her, but everything else was dark. Marinette pressed her hand against the ground, pushing herself up. Her arms shook. She was so weak. Where did all of her strength go? She had never felt this helpless before. Did they drug her or something? Marinette's memory was too fuzzy.

Marinette sat up and fell back, leaning against the wall. Her eye lids felt heavy. Her fingers reached to her ears, grazing over the skin. Her earrings were gone and so was her power. Marinette sighed. She remembered the entire meeting with the temple elders, but almost everything afterwards is a huge blank in her mind.

A light went off in her head. Marinette groaned, rubbing her temples. She saw April. Not now but earlier. She was running to her dorm room when she passed April in the hallway . . .

"April, April, April, April!" Marinette shouted, sprinting down the hallway and stopping in front of her. She took a deep breath. "April."

"Marinette." April smiled nervously and her eyes widened.

"I need . . . I need to tell you . . . something." Marinette bent over, panting.

"Well are you gonna tell me or should I come back later? You seem busy." April moved to walk past.

"No, wait!" Marinette stopped her. "I'm leaving the temple, so there won't be a later!"

"What happened?" April asked, face blank. "What did the council say? Was it Chat Noir? Are you running from him again?"

"Not this time. I need to get away from this place and these people before it's too late." Marinette walked to the other side of her. "The teachers, the students, the council, they're all out to get me. I have to go now!" Marinette turned to leave, but April pulled her back.

"You can't be serious. Of course you won't fit in here. You aren't one of us and you never have been, but that won't matter." April put her hands on her shoulders. "You've told me yourself that you're starting to enjoy it here, so why worry about them? I've seen you grow as a holder over the past few weeks. You should be here even if you were never supposed to be."

"You don't understand." Marinette removed her arms and looked around her. She moved to April's ear and whispered. "They're after me." April raised an eyebrow. "Listen, I don't know when they are listening or if they even are, but I need to leave while I still can."

"How do you know they're after you?" April seemed skeptical. "You have a little bit of a hyper and overreactive personality, Marinette. Are you sure you aren't reading in between lines that aren't even there? Was it Priya? I told you how competitive we all are."

"No, April!" Marinette rolled her eyes, still catching her breath. "Think about it. Why would they invite me here in the first place? I was their enemy before I even got here. It doesn't make sense for the council to act so friendly while they let me stomp all over their century old rules to be here."

"I guess that's a little suspicious, but I don't know exactly how the council thinks to agree with you."

"I also overheard them say something about a trial." Marinette announced. "They want to try me for my 'crimes.' The whole meeting I had with them was completely awkward and they were definitely repressing their real feelings, but after it was over, I went back because I forgot my purse, which I never got back. I overheard them talking negatively about me and how I don't deserve everything I have. I didn't hear a date and time for the prosecution, but if I leave now, I might have a chance to escape."

"Have you committed any actual crimes while you've been here?" April asked, thinking aloud.

Marinette stepped back, scrunched her eyebrows. "You don't believe me? Why are you accusing me of such things?" Her heart began to speed up. "Are you siding with them?!"

"No!" April stepped forward. "I'm asking because you're new and only freshman eleven year olds are given a copy of the temple, school, and miraculous rules." She sighed. "I'm just making sure you didn't accidentally break one. Even if it's small, we are very strict. They might prepare a trial. I only told you about our no using your miraculous outside of class rule. There are hundreds of others."

"I don't think I did." Marinette relaxed.

"Think about it. Rest on it for a night and we'll talk. Even if it's dirty, the temple is fantastic at ambushing students with a trial. If we know what you did, we can build a defense case early on." April tried to calm her.

"But I should be leaving." Marinette protested. "I have to."

"If you leave right away, that's a thousand times more suspicious and bad on your part. You need an actual plan."

"Well I'm not staying a whole night. There's no way I'll be sleeping." Marinette backed up. "I'm great at running from my problems, April, and even if you think it's childish, I'll still flee this one."

April took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll help you get out." She pulled out her phone. "I'm headed to get lunch right now, but if you're so focused on staying on the downlow right now, I'll grab it quick and come back to our room. I'll grab you something too, so you aren't thinking on an empty stomach. I should only be gone fifteen minutes and then we can strategize your next move, okay?"

"Just hurry." Marinette pleaded. "I can't take much more of this." She hyperventilated.

April jogged away, slipping her phone back in her pocket. Marinette turned around and continued back to her dorm. She stared at the ground, her thoughts racing. She was at a lost. Her mind and body was bursting with anxiety. She could hardly think straight let alone walk straight. The council was turning on her and once she left, she could never turn back. From here on out, she has to lay low and avoid being Ladybug too much. Marinette didn't really have a plan, but she'd rather make it before she loses everything. What would Chat Noir think? Was she going to see him again? That idea terrified but excited her at the same time.

Marinette unknowingly managed a small smile. Without admitting it, the image of Chat Noir made her slightly hopeful. She rounded the next left corner before looked up. BLANK

That was it. After talking to April, her memory was gone. Marinette rubbed her head. She didn't know what was around that corner, but whatever happened there, resulted in her being here.

Marinette's head fell to the side. Her wooden cell wasn't very big, but she could still move around. It was insanely humid in here. She sniffed the air. Something about it smelled weird. It made her drowsy yet awake. Even if she had her miraculous, she most likely wouldn't be able to transform, but that's probably what they wanted.

Marinette's wrist began to tingle and she squinted. Her eyes pointed down and she slowly reached to pull her sleeve up. There were what felt like a few bruises there. They hadn't appeared yet, but were starting to. Someone must have either grabbed her or dragged her here or both. Either way, the council was taking the trial very seriously with aggressive intentions. Being gentle clearly wasn't their concern. They weren't approaching this calmly, so her criminal punishment would be just as harsh. That thought scared her. They could erase her memory or hurt Chat Noir. Maybe the council would even go as far as killing her. It's not like Marinette had studied these people in high school. Who knows what their beliefs and societal norms are? They may have some secret ritual that no one, not even Master Fu, knows about. Marinette could even be some test subject to them or a minimal piece of property.

All Marinette knew was that she had to fight them no matter what, even in her weakened state. If they are to take her life in the end, they won't do so so easily. They'll have to earn her life.

A loud screech was heard and a bright light shown through. Marinette groaned, covering her eyes. A metal door across from her in the room was opened. The new light slowly lit up the room she was in. There were a few other wooden cells next to her, but she was the only one in here. She could make out counter tops and cabinets. It gave the impression of a doctor or a veterinarian office. Maybe she was a test subject after all.

Master Mantis stepped through the door, closing it behind him. He flipped a light switch, the light blazing Marinette's eyes. She winced. Mantis walked over and bent down next to the cage door, pulling out a key. He had a pair of chains hanging from his belt.

"We're ready for you now, Ms. Dupain-Cheng." He said, unlocking the gate.

"Ready for what?" Marinette rolled her head towards him.

"Your trial." He answered, "It's finally time."

Marinette smiled. "You guys couldn't even wait a day for me to bust out of this place." She laughed, probably losing her mind. "Everything seemed fine at our little meeting, but you all are too impatient I see. Why accuse me so quickly? Did you think I'd run? Because you're absolutely right."

"Why are you smiling?" Mantis squinted. "You're taking all of this so lightly."

"Because it's funny." She grinned. "I have run from so much in my lifetime and I'm just tired. Whatever happens . . . we'll see. I don't know what you guys are pumping in this air, but it's fantastic. I feel neutral. I've never felt more lifeless and alive at the same time." Marinette chuckled. "You guys are trying so hard to watch me fail and it's hilarious."

"Hold out your wrists." Mantis grabbed the chains.

Marinette leaned forward with a groan and complied. "You don't trust me?"

Mantis looked up at her before placing a shackle on each wrist. "I used to . . . but I believe that was a mistake." He stood, holding the end of the chains. "Stand." He commanded.

Marinette crawled out of the cage and stood up. "Where are we going? An auditorium? Is the whole school invited as my audience?"

"No." He sighed, pulling her to the door. "Just follow me and if you try anything funny, you will pay dearly."

"Got it." Marinette grinned.

Mantis opened the door and led Marinette out. As soon as the fresh air hit her, some life bled back into her soul. Once she was out of that room, her surroundings seemed to be taken in better. Marinette still felt weak but more awake.

They both stood in an unfamiliar hallway that mirrored the older one she walked down to attend their meeting earlier. This one only had two doors that she could see, the one they just left and one ahead of them. Mantis tugged her forward. The hall was lined with at least twelve men in suits that looked like secret service. They didn't react, but their heads followed her. Strange. Mantis lead her to the door. Number sixteen was marked on it. Marinette watched him turn the knob before pushing the wood open.

A/N

If you’ve read this far, I’d be happy to hear any reviews. They’ll help me find any possible plot holes and fix my future writing. Thanks

-Alice Pink

[acintya-bhedabheda-tattva]

Sri Manah-siksa

Raghunatha Dasa Goswami

“Instructions to the Mind”

Text 1 gurau gosthe gosthalayisu sujane bhusura-gane sva-mantre sri-namni vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-sarane sada dambham hitva kuru ratim apurvam atitaram aye svantardhatas catubhir abhiyace dhrta-padah

O Mind, I grasp your feet and beg you with sweet words: Please cast away all hypocrisy and develop intense, unprecedented love for my spiritual master, Vrajabhumi, the people of Vraja, the Vaisnavas, the brahmanas, the Gayatri mantra, the holy name, and the transcendental shelter that is the fresh young couple of Vraja, Radha and Krsna.

Text 2 na dharmam nadharmam sruti-gana-niruktam kila kuru vraje radha-krsna-pracura-paricaryam iha tanuh saci-sunum nandisvara-pati-sutatve guru-varam mukunda-presthatve smara padam ajasram nanu manah

O Mind, don’t concern yourself with the pious and impious deeds described in the Vedas. Rather, intently serve Sri Sri Radha-Krsna in Vraja. Always remember that Lord Caitanya is the son of Maharaja Nanda and that my guru is most dear to Lord Mukunda.

Text 3 yadiccher avasam vraja-bhuvi sa-ragam prati-janur yuva-dvandvam tac cet paricaritum arad abhilase svarupam sri-rupam sa-ganam iha tasyagrajam api sphutam premna nityam smara nama tada tvam srnu manah

O Mind, just listen to me! If you desire to reside in Vraja birth after birth, and if you desire to directly serve the divine youthful couple there with great attraction, then with intense love always remember and bow down to Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami; to Srila Rupa Gosvami and his elder brother, Srila Sanatana Gosvami; and to all their associates and followers.

Text 4 asad-varta-vesya visrja mati-sarvasva-haranih katha mukti-vyaghrya na srnu kila sarvatma-gilanih api tyaktva laksmi-pati-ratim ito vyoma-nayanim vraje radha-krsnau sva-rati-mani-dau tvam bhaja manah

O Mind, give up friendship with nondevotees, which is nothing but a prostitute who will steal the treasure of your heart–your desire to serve Radha-Krsna. Don’t listen to talks of impersonal liberation, which are a tigress who devours everyone. You should even give up attraction for Lord Narayana, which leads to the world of Vaikuntha. Instead, O mind, just worship Sri Sri Radha-Krsna in Vraja, for They bestow upon their worshipers the jewel of pure love for Themselves.

Text 5 asac-cesta-kasta-prada-vikata-pasalibhir iha prakamam kamadi-prakata-pathapati-vyatikaraih gale baddhva hanye ’ham iti bakabhid vartmapa-gane kuru tvam phutkaran avati sa yatha tvam mana itah

The highwaymen of lust and his friends have bound me around the neck with the painful, horrible, powerful ropes of many wicked deeds. O mind, please scream out to the devotees of Krsna, the killer of Baka, “I am being killed!” Then He will save me.

Text 6 are cetah prodyat-kapata-kuti-nati-bhara-khara- ksaran-mutre snatva dahasi katham atmanam api mam sada tvam gandharva-giridhari-pada-prema-vilasat- sudhambhodhau snatva svam api nitaram mam ca sukhaya

O Mind, why do you burn us both by bathing in the urine trickling from the ass of great deviousness and hypocrisy? Instead, you should delight us by eternally bathing in the glistening nectar-ocean of pure love for Sri Sri Gandharva-Giridhari (Sri Sri Radha-Krsna).

Text 7 pratisthasa dhrsta svapaca-ramani me hrdi natet katham sadhu-prema sprsati sucir etan nanu manah sada tvam sevasva prabhu-dayita-samantam atulam yatha tam niskasya tvaritam iha tam vesayati sah

as long as the impudent untouchable woman of the desire for fame dances in my heart, why should pure love for Radha-Krsna touch me? O mind, continuously serve my spiritual master, the leader of those who are dear to the Lord. Then my master will quickly kick out that harridan and allow that pure love to enter.

Text 8 yatha dustatvam me darayati sathasyapi krpaya yatha mahyam premamrtam api dadaty ujjvalam asau atha sri-gandharva-bhajana-vidhaye prerayati mam tatha gosthe kakva giridharam iha tvam bhaja manah

So That He will mercifully smash my wickedness (even though I am a great rascal), so that He will give me the splendid nectar of transcendental love, and so He will engage me in Sri Radha’s service, please, O mind, with words choked with emotion, worship Lord Giridhari here in Vraja.

Text 9 mad-isa-nathatve vraja-vipina-candram vraja-vane- svarim tan-nathatve tad-atula-sakhitve tu lalitam visakham siksali-vitarana-gurutve priya-saro- girindrau tat-preksa-lalita-rati-datve smara manah

O Mind, please meditate on Krsna, the moon of Vraja forest, as the Lord of my controller, Srimati Radharani. And please meditate upon Srimati Radharani, the queen of Vraja forest, as Krsna’s controller. Also please meditate upon Lalita as the peerless friend of Radha and Krsna, Visakha as the guru who teaches Them many things, and Radha-kunda and Govardhana Hill as two places the mere sight of which bestows charming transcendental love for the divine couple.

Text 10 ratim gauri-lile api tapati saundarya-kiranaih saci-laksmi-satyah paribhavati saubhagya-balanaih vasi-karais candravali-mukha-navina-vraja-satih ksipaty arad ya tam hari-dayita-radham bhaja manah

O Mind, please worship Lord Hari’s beloved Radha. with the splendor of Her beauty She makes Rati, Gauri, and Lila burn with envy, with the power of Her good fortune She defeats Saci, Laksmi, and Satyabhama, and with Her ability to control Krsna She completely eclipses Candravali and the other pious young girls of Vraja.

Text 11 samam sri-rupena smara-vivasa-radha-giribhrtor vraje saksat-seva-labhana-vidhaye tad-gana-yujoh tad-ijyakhya-dhyana-sravana-nati-païcamrtam idam dhayan nitya govardhanam anudinam tvam bhaja manah

O Mind, in order to attain the direct service of the two divine lovers, Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari, in the company of Their friends, every day you must constantly drink, with Sri Rupa Gosvami, the five nectars of worshiping Them, chanting Their names, meditating on Them, hearing about Them, and bowing down before Them, and every day you must worship Govardhana Hill.

Text 12 manah-siksa-daikadasaka-varam etam madhuraya gira gayaty uccaih samadhi-gata-sarvartha-tati yah sa-yuthah sri-rupanuga iha bhavan gokula-vane jano radha-krsnatula-bhajana-ratnam sa labhate

These eleven excellent instructions to the mind grant all spiritual benedictions. A person who stays with the devotees, follows Srila Rupa Gosvami, and with a sweet voice loudly sings these eleven verses will attain the matchless jewel of direct service to Sri Sri Radha-Krsna in the forest of Gokula

(Photos Of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Radhanath & Sri Caitanya at ISKCON Temple Of Understanding Chatsworth Durban South Africa)

Preaching To My Mind

Audio Lectures by His Holiness Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha01.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha02.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha03.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha04.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha05.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha06.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha07.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha08.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha09.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha10.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha11.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha12.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha13.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha14.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha15.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha16.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha17.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha18.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha19.mp3

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vihe/Manah_Siksa/Manah%20Siksha20.mp3

Source: http://www.vihe.org/audio_lectures.html#

Seminar By Her Grace Mataji Urmila devi dasi

Part 1

https://youtu.be/Ikh1QHGOvhw

Part 2

https://youtu.be/NVVaRrWIexQ

Part 3

https://youtu.be/RPAoRdngJME

[optimisticprincepainter]

Veteran actress and Bollywood’s beloved ‘Shammi aunty’ has passed away at the age of 89.She was seen in Coolie No 1, Khuda Gawah, Hum, Arth, The Burning Train and the recent Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, as well as the television series Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Shriman Shrimati, Kabhi Yeh Kabhi Woh and Filmi Chakkar. Born as Nargis Rabadi, she had an elder sister, Nina Rabadi, who was a fashion designer. Her father was a priest in an agyari (Parsi fire temple). She has spent 64 years in the industry. Her first film was Ustad Pedro and she was just 18 at the time. Shammi`s first film as a solo heroine was Malhar, produced by playback singer Mukesh. The film didn`t do well at the box office. Later she got a role in Dilip Kumar starrer Sangdil and after that, there was no looking back for the actress who symbolised the modern woman on screen. Priya Dutt paid tribute to her on Twitter, saying, “Shammi, aunty to me and a great actor of yesteryears passed away today. She was my mother’s dear friend and someone we all loved very much. May her soul rest in peace and her laughter and contagious smile rock the heavens. Be In peace with your friends.” The Rediff.com : 6th. Mar,18

VETERAN ACTRESS AND BOLLYWOOD’s BELOVED ‘SHAMMI AUNTY’ DIED AT THE AGE OF 89 YEARS : Veteran actress and Bollywood's beloved 'Shammi aunty' has passed away at the age of 89.She was seen in Coolie No 1, Khuda Gawah, Hum, Arth, The Burning Train and the recent Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, as well as the television series Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Shriman Shrimati, Kabhi Yeh Kabhi Woh and Filmi Chakkar.

[halcyon-hyacinth]

Malini in the Oleander Sword

[halcyon-hyacinth]

Read both books in The Burning Kingdoms series and IDK why Malini wants to keep her relationship with Priya under wraps, like, she's in the business of overthrowing the status quo anyway, she could always change the law and make it so that same-sex relationships are no longer illegal once she secures her throne???

Legalizing something doesn't take away the discrimination or existing bias traditional Parijatis (and even people of the city-states that aren't Ahiranya) will hold towards the idea.

Malini and Priya are at odds because Malini wants to unite the empire under her rule. Priya wants Ahiranya freed from the empire.

As it stands, there is no way to free Ahiranya from the empire because of the yaksa. The rest of the empire is terrified of them, and a free Ahiranya is always going to be a bigger threat than one brought to heel by the empire.

At the same time, it is also difficult for Ahiranya to survive on its own with zero support from the empire since being conquered their power has greatly diminished. Most of its population is impoverished and struggling to make ends meet. It relies on trade from other city-states, and rich nobleman visiting the city and spending like crazy to keep its local economy going.

As it stands, Malini being in a same-sex relationship would be bad image wise on a political and religious level. And she needs to raise her image and keep it as impeccable as possible in order to retain her title as empress - she needs the support of the priests and of the highborn politicians.

Even if Malini was able to legalize same-sex marriage again, it would take years to repair all the damage done by it being made socially unacceptable to begin with.

And again, it's only part of the problem. Malini is not just a girl. She is now the ruler of an empire. And she has to do whatever it takes to keep control. Especially if that means adjusting to socially outdated norms in a bid to keep the highborn political elites on her side, along with the priests.

Personally, I think Malini and Priya will find a way to work together in book 3 and take down the yaksa once and for all with help from Bhumika. And I hope, one day, Malini can marry Priya in Ahiyanya.

But for now, it's a dream that cannot be fulfilled.

[halcyon-hyacinth]

I have made a priyamalini quote bot for the PEOPLE

[halcyon-hyacinth]

Yo I read the jasmine throne cause you were talking about it a bit ago, and wow oh wow, I loved it! I finished the first book in 5ish days and immediately put the second one on hold when I finished it.

Great rec, thanks for putting me on :)

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the book!!!

the burning kingdoms series is one of my faves of all time. I think you'll like the second book even more, with all the developments that take place.

let me know what you think once you finish it!

[halcyon-hyacinth]

priyamalini fic im writing with oomf is coming along well

haunted 10... I promise I will work on you this week <3