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:
Happy (early) Thanksgiving to those of you in the United States (and anywhere else you may be celebrating)! 🦃 I did this Thanksgiving book tag in 2022 and 2023 and thought it’d be fun to continue the tradition with choices from books I’ve read this year. Thank you to Anna’s Book Nook for creating this tag!
The Undermining of Twyla and Frank had such a great found family in it. Twyla and Frank felt like they could have easily been my parents, and I thought it was adorable the way Frank adopted the baby dragon. This was one of my favorite books of the year so far, and I definitely wish I was a part of Twyla and Frank’s family.
A Darker Mischief just did not work for me at all. I was so excited to read it and wanted to love a new queer dark academia story. This one just was not for me. You can read all about why in my review.
I’ve barely re-read anything this year, which is kind of a bummer because I’d love to re-visit some of my favorites. Although, I do always get a hankering to read Over Sea, Under Stone around this time of the year in preparation for my annual re-read of The Dark Is Rising in December.
I struggled to remember if any of my books this year had a bird in them. I think there was a phoenix in Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White. So, I’m going to go with it for this prompt. I enjoyed this duology conclusion and will be on the lookout for whatever Zhao writes next.
The Darkness Before Them bored me to tears. I’m not quite sure why, but I just could not stay focused on it. There was interesting stuff going on. I just didn’t really connect with any of it.
Cat Sebastian is a new favorite author of mine. I’ve yet to find a book of hers that I didn’t love. You Should Be So Lucky was no exception. I fell in love with these characters so much and fully committed to wanting them to get their happily ever after.
Navola has one of my favorite covers of the year. It is super simple, but the white background with the red eye that just pops out is absolute PERFECTION. I liked this book, but I did find myself wishing there was a bit more fantasy to it.
The Book of Love is a book that I don’t remember that much about. lol. I know I enjoyed it and remember thinking it was really weird. I really cannot pin down exactly what I loved about it, though.
I never know how to answer this prompt. One year I picked a book that was sickeningly sweet. Another year, I chose a book that was a guilty pleasure. This year I’ve decided to pick Odd Spirits because it was the perfect prequel addition that provided great context to the events in the first book. That’s kind of how I view dessert, a delicious extra tacked on to the main parts of the meal. So, this prequel novella fits that bill perfectly. 🙂
I’ve tried to decrease my book buying for the last month or two because I’ve been moving. So, I actually have some books on my ‘want to buy’ list this year. Usually, I just buy what I want whenever I want it, which I’m sure will be the case again once we get settled in Illinois and I finish putting together my library room.
Witch Queen of Redwinter by Ed McDonald, Candle & Crow by Kevin Hearne, Love Immortal by Kit Vincent, The City in Glass by Nghi Vo, Warlords of Wyrdwood by RJ Barker
Anyone who wants to participate. So, if you’re bored, feel free to have some fun and consider yourself tagged. Otherwise, bookmark it until next year!
That’s it for this year’s Thanksgiving book tag! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving full of good food and great times.
Today I’m participating in Top Ten Tuesday, which was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week there is a new theme/topic, and participants choose ten books that fit it.
This week’s theme is ten books with Destination Titles (titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fiction!) (this was a topic Rachel @ Sunny Side came up with for a freebie week last year and has let me steal it!). I had to choose titles with fictional places in them because I couldn’t find very many real place names in the titles of books I’ve read. Even the fictional ones were a struggle. lol. The titles link to my reviews, if available. The covers link to Goodreads in case any of them catch your eye!
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The packing continued all throughout October. I finally managed to get all the books into boxes. I thought it would never end. lol. We ended up with 60+ boxes of books. I think 2025 will need to be a year of focusing on reading the stuff on my shelves even more than ever before. I am NEVER moving this many books again, and I need to read and cull any books that are not ones I love.
We’ll finally be heading to Illinois on November 16! It can’t come soon enough. I’m so ready to get through all of the stress and begin enjoying the process of exploring our new space. The impending move does mean I’ll be offline a bit more in mid to late November, but I’ll try to check in as often as I can.
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The Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it to the semi-finals with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title.
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 16 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
Title: Poisoned Empire
Author: Elyse Thomson
Length: 400 Pages
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Age Category: Adult
Date Published: July 12, 2023
Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Amazon (Canada)
A poisoner. A prince. And a passion that could destroy an empire…or save it.
Black-marketeer Selene has poison magic and the cynicism to match. When she and genius metals mage Iliana are arrested by the same scheming, noble fathers who tossed them out at birth, they suspect apologies won’t be forthcoming. Forced to either impersonate their half-sisters or die, the friends are stuffed into fancy dresses, packed off to the capital, and thrust into the perilous, glittering world of the imperial court.
Traitors lurk in Prince Belisarius’ court, and only his loyal strategos Marduk is above suspicion. As noble-born villains siphon away the souls of their daughters to magnify their magic in secret, Belisarius plots to expose them all—by inviting every noblewoman in the empire to compete for his hand in marriage. But two infuriating imposters in attendance quickly become his bane.
When the friends are discovered, they expect imprisonment—not a deal. Vast riches are on offer if Selene poses as fiancée to the handsome prince while Iliana simpers for the towering strategos—a ploy to lure traitorous enemies to the capital. Yet even as they help secure the throne, false affections flirt with real passions, and Selene and Iliana are convinced they’ll either lose their hearts… or their heads.
Elyse Thomson is the pen-name of author, bookbinder and self-proclaimed hermit residing in Canada’s capital. She writes escapist fantasy with daring heroines, magical mayhem, swoon-worthy romance and court intrigue. Having graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelors in History and Classics, she is delighted to bring her love of all things ancient to her work. When not writing, she’s restoring antiquarian books for a select group of clients, gaming, or snuggling up with either her husband or her neurotic terrier, Freya.
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:
Hello, everyone! Today I’m doing something that rarely happens… Talking about a book I’ve decided to DNF. That book is The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen.
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Hello, everyone! I’m finally reviewing another book… It has been almost a month since my last review. I couldn’t be happier to break that dry spell with The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch. Read on below to find out what I thought about this holiday fantasy romance.
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