Hello, everyone! It’s Wednesday! That means it is (past) time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. I’ll be answering the following questions:

1. What did you read last?
2. What are you currently reading?
3. What will you read next?

What did you read last?

Last week, I didn’t finish any books. This week, I managed to get through four of them! Yay! 🥳

An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson – 3.5⭐– I loved the experience of reading this book. It was so atmospheric and captured the essence of dark academia really well. The magic was incredibly interesting, and I found myself wanting the main character to succeed despite her being a seriously flawed person. I never really knew quite where things were going next, which I appreciated a lot. Unfortunately, the ending didn’t really work for me, and I wanted the story to have a bit more depth in regard to its exploration of certain themes. All in all, though, this was a solid dark academia story that utilized elements of horror to tell an engrossing, if at times slow, story that I’m sure I’ll read again someday.

Odd Spirits by S.T. Gibson – 3.75⭐ – This novella provided so much context to the relationship dynamics in Evocation. I really liked spending more time with Moira and Rhys. I feel like I know the characters better after getting such an intimate look into the start of their relationship and how they navigated through such a major marital stressor. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series even more now.

Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno – 4⭐ – This book provided exactly what I wanted from it. The romance set amidst the backdrop of war was compelling. I was rooting for the characters from the very first pages. The relationship was somewhat insta-love, but it did take time for their connection to deepen because of the war keeping the characters apart so much. The magic was interesting and at times horrifying, but I do wish there had been a bit more emphasis on the world-building. I also thought the pacing suffered some because of the time skips, but I didn’t mind it too much. The main draw for me was the characters, though, and I adored both of them so much. This one was thankfully worth the Audible credit. 🙂

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien – 4.25⭐ – What can I even say about this book that hasn’t already been discussed a thousand times over? I’ll just say that it is a huge personal accomplishment to finally have read this book. It has been on my TBR longer than any other, but I had trouble getting through it in previous attempts. I took my time with it and prevailed this time, though, and the mythology was truly just so captivating.

What are you currently reading?

The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen (6%) – I just started this one yesterday evening, but I already love the writing.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch (46%) – This book is nothing like I was expecting. I went into thinking I’d get a cute romcom about the princes of Christmas and Halloween smooching a lot. Instead, it’s had angst, messy family dynamics, a despotic Santa bent on world domination, a lengthy critique of capitalism and the commodification of Christmas, and only a sprinkling of smooching and smoldering sexual tension. A lot of time has been spent on the world-building and political maneuvering of the different holidays, as well, and it has gotten a bit too info-dumpy at times. All that being said, I love the characters and the story despite the differences from my initial expectations. I do hope the latter half leans in on the romance more, though,

Padawan’s Pride by Bryan Q. Miller (9%) – The time period between Episodes I and II of Star Wars is severely underutilized. So, I was very excited when I saw that there was a new audiobook with a story set during that time. I’ve always wanted to see more of the early dynamic between Obi-Wan and Anakin in canon. This story doesn’t disappoint on that front so far.

What will you read next?

I’m still just following my mood at this point. My pre-order of Blood Over Bright Haven arrives later this week. So, hopefully I’ll get to pick it up ASAP. I also have some ARCs I need to read, as usual.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang, The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri, The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart

I hope you’ve all had a great week! What have you been reading? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments and feel free to link your WWW Wednesday posts there, as well. I’d love to see them!