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from ml.books

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“The walls speak to me. They tell me secrets. Don’t listen to them, press your hands against your ears, Noemí. There are ghosts. They’re real. You’ll see them eventually.”

MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno Garcia

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I've been in a reading slump for a few weeks - I have like four half-finished books laying around, two audiobook ARCs I haven't started I've been meaning to, and a comic book tpb I got halfway through before putting down and not picking back up. I can't even concentrate on fanfiction or webcomics, like my brain just won't focus on anything. It's extremely frustrating and I don't know if I just need to accept I'm not going to read for a couple of weeks or if I should try to force myself to finish something.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for an ARC of Love in Focus by Lyla Lee.

First I just want to mention I loved the narrators for this book! Gemma's voice actress was so bright and bubbly, and Celeste's was a little husky and much more serious - it made the characters so much easier to picture. Celeste Min is for sure my book wife, every description of her had me like - oh my God! She's tattooed! She's emotionally unavailable! She's a talented photographer!

Celeste was by far my favourite character in this story.

The pacing of the audio was fantastic for the first two acts of the story, but I found by the third it seemed to drag. I think this was partially a pacing problem with the story itself, however, and does not necessarily reflect the quality of the audio performance.

Gemma and Celeste's story was so tragic and beautiful. A second chance romance is something that authors can struggle with portraying, but Lyla Lee executes it so well. Gemma starts the story needing to do so much work and self-reflection - she's a bisexual mess who has never been single for more than a month since college. Celeste, meanwhile, is so hurt by her and Gemma's breakup eight years prior that she has ended all expectation of ever finding a relationship again. The two of them dance around each other for a while, unwilling to give in to their obvious and growing attraction, but when they finally come together it's like fireworks.

The cast of supporting characters was delightful, too. Val and Kiara were super supportive friends with a beautiful romance of their own, meanwhile James and Daphne were characters you love to hate. Gemma boss, Evelyn, was sharp and clever but also exceedingly kind. They really rounded out the story nicely. I would have loved to see more characters from Celeste's life to balance things out, however - aside from a few mentions and one brief appearance of her friend Min-joon, this story is heavily weighted in Gemma's favour, which is somewhat disappointing as it is (sort of?) dual POV.

Gemma's perspective being first person and Celeste's perspective being in third person was a little disappointing to me. I understood it served to add another barrier between the reader and Celeste's inner thoughts and feelings, but I just wanted to know more about her - about her struggles, her pain, her whirlwind romance with Gemma.

The ending of this story was satisfying, but I strongly disliked Gemma and Celeste's conversation that was riddled with therapyspeak. It felt disingenuous to their previous characterisations, especially Celeste's. However, while it did subtract one star from my overall rating, I would still recommend this book to others and will be seeking out Lyla Lee's Flip the Script, which is another sapphic romance novel.

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TRCC 10th Anniversary Readathon - Day 2!

I didn't punch through any reading goals today, but I did manage to write over 4,000 words, so there was still a win?

The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins - 14% -> 19%

I have a busy day tomorrow, with writing group at the library and then going to the winter festival with friends, but I'm hoping for a quiet evening filled with cups of tea and many books 💙

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lads you'll never believe what happened

"who keeps requesting all these books on my netgalley account?!" i say as i get yet another approval email, knowing damn well i am the one requesting all these books on netgalley

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"who keeps requesting all these books on my netgalley account?!" i say as i get yet another approval email, knowing damn well i am the one requesting all these books on netgalley

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TRCC 10th Anniversary Readathon - Day 1!

I kicked off day one of the readathon by finishing a book I have left half-finished for the past few weeks. Life happened, I had to put it down, I never picked it back up.

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee - 65% -> 100%

I'm going to post my review of it in the morning because I can't quite articulate my thoughts on it right now - but a huge thank you to @spellboundbybooks for listening to this one with me. I don't think it would have been half as fun without the two of us making comments back and forth.

I was hoping to maybe read another chapter of The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins today but by the time I made it home from Sydney I was exhausted! That'll likely be for tomorrow.

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Announcing the TRCC 10th Anniversary Readathon!

where we're going to celebrate my 10-year booklr anniversary by ... reading more books!

that's right, this year marks a whole decade of my life spent reading and blogging with y'all. I cannot fathom where all that time has gone but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get us all together and give our reading a little boost 🥰

the readathon will start July 17th in your own timezone and will run until July 23rd, also in your own timezone. our only goals are to prioritise our reading and to chat with other people and maybe make some new friends along the way!

but because I love a little direction in these broad-stroke readathons, I've also settled on three mini-challenges that are completely optional

the mini challenges encourage you to:

Read a book with #Own Voices disability rep

Read a book you learned about from booklr

Read the book that's been on your TBR the longest

I hope you'll all join in as much as you can when we start on the 17th. I'll be sure to keep this announcement post circulating so as many people can join in as possible. We'll be using "#trcc readathon" as our hashtag for the event so please add that to any posts you make for the event 😊

I can't wait to see what everyone picks out to read! here's to a wonderful 10 years on booklr (and perhaps another 10 years 🤭)

see you all on July 17! - Bash 🧡

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JOMP BPC - 12th March - Latest Purchase

I've just finished reading The Odyssey and loved it. I'm also a big fan of Margaret Atwood's writing, so her take on Penelope's experience of waiting so many years for her husband to come home and what happens when he does eventually return was too much of a temptation. I'm going to read it with a friend later in the year so we can have a little two-woman book group session about it :-)

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obsessed with these covers

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Announcing the TRCC 10th Anniversary Readathon!

where we're going to celebrate my 10-year booklr anniversary by ... reading more books!

that's right, this year marks a whole decade of my life spent reading and blogging with y'all. I cannot fathom where all that time has gone but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get us all together and give our reading a little boost 🥰

the readathon will start July 17th in your own timezone and will run until July 23rd, also in your own timezone. our only goals are to prioritise our reading and to chat with other people and maybe make some new friends along the way!

but because I love a little direction in these broad-stroke readathons, I've also settled on three mini-challenges that are completely optional

the mini challenges encourage you to:

Read a book with #Own Voices disability rep

Read a book you learned about from booklr

Read the book that's been on your TBR the longest

I hope you'll all join in as much as you can when we start on the 17th. I'll be sure to keep this announcement post circulating so as many people can join in as possible. We'll be using "#trcc readathon" as our hashtag for the event so please add that to any posts you make for the event 😊

I can't wait to see what everyone picks out to read! here's to a wonderful 10 years on booklr (and perhaps another 10 years 🤭)

see you all on July 17! - Bash 🧡

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"are you really reading five books at the same time?" yes "don't you get confused between them?" no "i could never do that it seems like too much work" skill issue

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i have a reading list longer than my life expectancy

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reading outside | JOMP book photo challenge | 21 August 2024

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read in 2019 📖 Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman

“Clara didn’t know what to say, but she also knew not every silence had to be filled. Sometimes the white spots, those left undyed and natural, were integral to the beauty of a colorway.”

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i love how much sapphic romance (from big publishers, too!) that exists these days. for so many years i have looked at romance novels, forever intrigued by their covers, before inevitably picking them up to read the blurb and going "wow, that sounds so good, if only it was about two women!"

i don't need to do that anymore. because now they do make books about women falling in love! and it's the fucking best!