theninjabooknerd

[theninjabooknerd]

Herb's Properties

Basil:  money, luck, prosperity, happiness

Bay Leaf: energy, cleansing, can be charged with almost any intention

Camomile: Caring, kindness, luck, growth, self-love growth, confidence, avoiding negativity, happiness

Cinnamon: passion, quick success, fire magick

Chia seeds: Growth, health, kindness, Property

Chilli flakes:  Pride, confidence, power, strength, Passion

Cumin: Courage, bravery, protection, loyalty

Dandelion: wishes, charisma, success, good luck

Dill: sexual love, luck, protection

Eucalyptus: cleansing, healing, purifying, relaxing, comfort

Fennel:  hate, anger

Flax seeds: Prosperity, growth, new beginnings

Ginger: fiery passion, success, and personal power

Jasmine: love, dreams, sensuality, luxury and kindness

Lavender: love and attraction, purification, relaxation, restful sleep

Nutmeg: luck, Health, Fidelity, Love, Prosperity, comfort, loyalty

Oregano:  comfort, love, warmth

Paprika:  Pride, confidence, power, strength

Parsley: Cleansing. purification

Peppermint: healing, purification, love and energy, cleansing, prosperity

Poppy seeds: protection, intuition, self-assurance, hexing and cursing

Rose: love, beauty, harmony, romance, attraction

Rosemary: cleansing, purification, wisdom, protection

Sesame seeds: Prosperity, growth, health, nurturing

Spearmint: love, cleansing, renewal, blessing

Sunflower seeds: happiness, growth, joy

Thyme: beauty, strength, courage

Turmeric: confidence, creativity, energy

Vanilla: love and sexuality

tip jar

[theninjabooknerd]

Nesta: *Finds a stray cat*

Nesta: Can we keep him?

Azriel: Cassian's allergic.

Nesta: Cassian can sleep outside.

[theninjabooknerd]

Mystery Novels with Female Detectives

For those who are looking for stories that revolve around strong female detectives here is a list of 7 novels that may interest you...

#1 Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

Genre Elements:

Black queer female detective story

Harlem Renaissance historical fiction mystery

Amateur detective story

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting: 1920s opulence mixed with ominous suspense

characterization: action based story, not about personal growth of the characters

pacing: fast paced mystery

storyline: focused on historical realities, and exterior events

Summary:

"In the heart of Harlem, young black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead. As each new victim appears, Louise’s neighborhood becomes more on edge. After an altercation with a police officer gets Louise arrested, she is given an ultimatum; help the police solve the case, or end up in a jail cell. Louise has no choice but to look into these murders, but in doing so, has put herself in the path of a murderous mastermind," (Penguin Random House).

#2 The Maid by Nita Prose

Genre Elements:

Neurodivergent Female detective

Amateur detective

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting: clever cozy crime mystery

characterization:  character based, the protagonists inner world is the main draw of the story

pacing: slower paced

storyline:  Intriguing look into the life of a neurodivergent woman turned amateur detective

Summary:

"Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for her job as a hotel maid. But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find him dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect.  Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black — but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?" (Penguin Random House).

#3 The Verifiers by Jane Pek

Genre Elements:

Asian female detective story

Modern mystery

Amateur detective

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting: Humour mystery in a modern setting

characterization: focused on external interactions between main character and secondary characters

pacing: faster paced

storyline: a light hearted mystery with an exploration into immigrant family traditions and expectations

Summary:

"Claudia Lin is an amateur sleuth in the 21st century. Claudia just landed her dream job working for Veracity, a referrals-only online dating site. Her job is to verify that people really are who they say they are. But when one of her clients disappears, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate and winds up in over her head," (Penguin Random House).

#4 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Genre Elements:

Older Adult amateur detective

Asian female detective story

Modern mystery story

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting:  Humor and heartwarming story entwined with a modern suspenseful who-done-it mystery

characterization:  events focused book with switching points of view

pacing: fast paced

storyline:  intriguing clever mystery mixed with emotional and humorous situations that create a found family.

Summary:

"Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops, she swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer," (Penguin Random House).

#5 A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

Genre Elements:

Gender swap Sherlock Holmes retelling

Historical fiction mystery story

Private detective

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting:  suspenseful and horrifying by showcasing women's voiceless in the Victorian Era

characterization:  events based historical retelling with intermingled developing romance

pacing: faster paced

storyline: An examination of Victorian gender roles meets a gender bent re-telling of the famous Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Summary:

"With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper-class society. So, when the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old — a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind," (Penguin Random House).

#6 Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Genre Elements:

Combined modern mystery, supernatural entity, and horror story

Amateur detective

Black female detective

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting: tense and ominous tone in an unwelcoming atmosphere of a southern American town

characterization: character based novel where the main character returns to their hometown and confronts their inner trauma.

pacing:  slow paced mystery horror

storyline:  A supernatural mystery meets a discourse into the racism, classism, and prejudice present in the American south.

Summary:

"Liz Rocher is coming home for her best friend’s wedding. But on the day of the wedding, the couple’s daughter, Caroline, disappears. As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: A summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls. With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness," (Penguin Random House).

#7 Fire Keeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Genre Elements:

Indigenous (Ojibwe) Canadian female undercover police informant

Modern romance mystery

Amateur detective story

Appeal Elements:

frame/ setting: suspense and romance

characterization: begins as a character focused novel but switches to focus on the action as the mystery unfolds

pacing: slow to start, and but quickly turns into a faster pace

storyline: a coming-of-age romance meets a discussion into the realities of life for Indigenous communities across Ontario who suffer from higher rates of substance abuse and addiction.

Summary:

"Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.

Now, as the deceptions―and deaths―keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known, (Amazon Books)."

[theninjabooknerd]

i am sobbing profusely

fuck...man I'm a crying mess, their friendship is SO pure

both of them looking back on their scenes from the last 4 years, the journey their characters have been on and how it all led to that beautiful first kiss...

that final moment of Nic talking about Bridgerton having an impact on their lives forever "till we're old and grey"....SOBBING.

[theninjabooknerd]

[theninjabooknerd]

deae_lunae on twitter and instagram

[theninjabooknerd]

I have can’t stop thinking of Penelope Featherington disease.

[theninjabooknerd]

#the "oh." moment: bi bridgerton siblings™ edition

[theninjabooknerd]

#you know it's serious when they pull that face

[theninjabooknerd]

BRIDGERTON | Season 3, Episode 8, “Into the Light”

[theninjabooknerd]

@nessianweek | Day 01: What Happened Next?

“Yes — when the time was right, they would start that journey together.”

Nesta and Cassian didn’t have the best family relationships with their maternal or paternal figures and this created deep marks on both of them, even influencing the notion they have about deserving or being worthy of the love of those around them.

Even if not in the immediate future, we have evidence they want to have children and we believe as soon as they learn about the existence of the first little bat, they will realize that loving their own children is not conditional or difficult.

For the first day of Nessian Week, @podemechamardek and I commissioned this fanart of Nessian with the little bat, because we have a soft spot for Nessian as parents. Michelle did an amazing job.

Art by: kure_indreams  Commissioned by: @melphss & @podemechamardek

[theninjabooknerd]

Cassian and Nesta - A Court of Thorns and Roses

Artist: @sunni_rae_art

[theninjabooknerd]

Nessian 🔥

Art: incendiosketches

[theninjabooknerd]

The Bat Boys & The Archeron Sisters 🫶🏼

🎨 by eospaint on insta

[theninjabooknerd]

Excellent.

[theninjabooknerd]

“I would suggest that if you spend less time running away from problems and trying to rid yourself of them - and more time accepting problems as an inevitable, natural, even important part of life - you will soon discover that life can be more of a dance and less of a battle.”

— Richard Carlson

[theninjabooknerd]

The price of our protest.

It may seem to you that Russians protest not that much against the war. Let me explain something.

On February 24, I woke up and found out that my country had attacked Ukraine. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. I was furious because an attack on a neighboring state is a disgrace for my country and for me personally. At first, I decided to refrain from participating in an anti-war demonstration, because it is quite obvious that this will not stop Putin, and it will cost me very much. But in the evening after work, I impulsively rushed to the city center for a rally, because the thought of complicity in this crime was unbearable for me. I wanted to take away from Putin the opportunity to say that Russians support this war. I wanted to give the politicians of free democratic states the opportunity to speak on my behalf - on behalf of a Russian woman who opposes Putin’s military aggression and Putin’s regime. I knew how expensive my protest could cost me - for participating in an unauthorized rally, I could be punished with a fine of 20 thousand rubles or arrested for 15 days (In 2019, the median salary in Russia is 34 thousand rubles (29.9 thousand rubles after tax)). But still, I decided it was worth it.

The city center was packed with riot police. Pushkin Square was cordoned off. I heard a policeman passing by saying into his walkie-talkie that the paddy wagons were already packed. Me and several other girls were rudely detained when we were dancing traditional slavic circle dance, chanting “No more war!” The paddy wagon was packed, there were 27 of us, mostly young people about 20 years old. We spent the whole night on the bare floor in the corridor of the police department, we were forced to undergo fingerprinting, like criminals, we were issued fines of 20 thousand rubles. Personally, I was threatened with an article about repeated violation of the rules of mass events, since in January 2021 I was detained with a poster at a rally after Navalny’s arrest, for repeated violation, the punishment is a fine of 150-300 thousand rubles (to pay this fine, I would have to pay my entire salary for several months) or arrest for up to 30 days. I was saved only by the intervention of a lawyer, who was provided to me by the human rights organization “Apology of Protest”. 

So please don’t hate Russians. We live in a poor authoritarian state, and we don’t have a lot of means to express our protest. Most of our opposition politicians have been killed, imprisoned or forced to emigrate. Most of the independent media have been destroyed, the rest are state propaganda. Our media laws are monstrous. Our media is forbidden to call the war with Ukraine a war. Any assistance to Ukraine has been declared a treason and will be punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Medvedev announced the possibility of returning the death penalty.

When Putin came to power, I was six years old. Most of those who come out to protest against the war were born already under Putin. We have lived all our lives in an unfree, corrupt country, and now our life has turned into something completely fucked up overnight. We’re just trying to survive somehow.  Я против этой войны. Я люблю свою страну, и мне больно.