My March was filled with books about gay magical boys and enbys and it's the best state of existence to be in. Absolute bliss. Why are books so much fun?! Also despite everything I said in January, I ended up spending way too much time on reading. But. This month was so good. So good! If I had to go back in time and start from the beginning I wouldn't mind at all. xD

The Devil's Luck (L.S. Baird): Found this thanks to a recommendation list of aromantic books. And what a blast! The first arc was such a delight! Etienne is great! <3 It shifts in tone afterwards but it's still engaging with charming characters and adventure and intrigue. I love everything about this book. I wish there was a paper edition so that I could hug it close, put it in my bookshelf and stare at it for 20 minutes every other day. yAy (I actually made a fanart.)

Of Feathers and Thorns (Kit Vincent): I see a pretty cover with a decent blurb and a review complaining that it's not romancy enough I know I found my book. xD I loved this. Such a good time. See, these are some sensible boys. First, they save the world, then they make out. As it should be. Thank you. Also Oi. He has a very cute voice inside my head. And once I remembered about the pie-eating homunculi of Atelier Shallie now I can't unsee the image. Speaking of pies. Isn't Kieren the most charming boy to settle into a new house by cooking for its residents?

In Memoriam (Alice Winn): Picked this one up on a whim because it sounded tragic. And goddamn. I couldn't read another book for 5 days afterwards because my heart was still in pieces. I don't have the words to properly express everything I loved about this book (which is everything). It's just really, really good. It hurts and it’s beautiful at the same time. There’s sweetness and tenderness next to gruesome deaths, desperation and “why would they do that?!”. You can see how the characters fall apart and rebuild themselves. If you can stomach war cruelties and suffering boys, I cannot recommend this enough.

The Wicked Bargain (Gabe Cole Novoa): I enjoyed this one. Pirates! Magic! Demons! This is one of those books I feel even more positive about now that some time has passed (the opposite can happen as well). My only small gripe with the story is how Mar in the first third doesn't do anything to push the plot forward. They want to save their father but hardly do anything to get there. If not for the other characters pushing and nagging nothing would have happenend at all. :'D But! I like Mar and I very much appreciate them not being stupid. Like the classic "Oh someone told me not to do something? So I of course I'm doing it!" Not Mar. Their papà made a mistake so they are intend to not make the same. Good kid. It's just that that doesn't help to move things forward. xD

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow 3) (Rainbow Rowell): Haah. I think, I liked the series better with each volume. I wonder if that is because it actually got better or because I finally got to know the characters and could enjoy them more. See, I've said it before, the first volume feels like a season ending without having seen the series until then. Now, after volume 3 I feel I could start with vol1 again and maybe appreciate everything a little more, because now I know everyone. Needless to say, I had fun! And it was so nice to see Simon grow and finally find his place.

The Heart of The Lost Star (Tales of the High Court 3) (Megan Derr): I like the worldbuilding of this series and the recurring characters. Now this particular volume is not something I would have picked up as a stand-alone or series starter, because children and pregnancy really aren't a thing I would choose to read about. That being said I did enjoy reading this because of everything else around (volume 1 is still my favourite. Having Allen in here made me want to go back there and read his story again.) Kamir is a pleasant character and there's stuff like a court procedure over child custody which is among the last things I would have expected in my fantasy book, but a nice change!

Heart, Haunt, Havoc (Freydís Moon): What? Another book I bought just because of the pretty cover? How dare you say that! uAu" Not true!! After the many slow-burns this month this one is so fast with its romance that I'm once again left wondering "is this really how it works?" xD It's ok though, I don't mind it in this case. I liked the story and the setting and the character backgrounds. The book is also really short at about 150 pages, so there's hardly reason not to read it.

The Left Hand of Darkness/Die Linke Hand der Dunkelheit (Ursula K. Le Guin): Ha! No pretty cover here. And surely I'm not just deciding do read a book because I saw one single pretty fanart of it. No no, not me, ever. (Definitely me.) It certainly felt different from what I usually read. Maybe because of the time it was written, maybe because of the genre which I rarely read or maybe just the author's style, probably all of it. I don't think I understood everything. Books like these usually have layers, right? Things told between the lines. I have a strong feeling, I missed some of that but that's alright. I did enjoy reading it. In the end, it was strangely moving. So I'll just fondly reread it in a year or two. :) (I read the all newly translated German edition and it made me wonder at certain points how it was translated originally and how it was written originally. The new translator Karen Nölle will be attending a convention in my city in May, where I’ll be having an artist alley table. I wonder if I can make it to her panel ...)

Prince of the Sorrows (Rowan Blood 1) (Kellen Graves): I picked this up last summer already and then put it down again after reading a few pages. It has a lot of descriptions and a lot of words, which are admittedly very pretty, but also very many. 8D (I get tired of descriptions easily.) Once I got past the opening pages, it quickly gripped me though. The story turned out to be much more than I expected. Like the scope of what's going on and how the love story is much sweeter than it seems at first. It's interesting! It also ends right in the middle of everything, which is something I didn't have in a long time (usually, my series have one adventure per volume)! Glad, the sequel is already out.

The Last Fallen Star (Graci Kim): I decided to read this after Aru Shah ended last year and I needed to fill my Middle Grade shaped hole. (Since I started Keeper of the Lost Cities as well, I guess, that hole will stayed filled for quite a while. :'D) The premise is interesting, the execution ... hm. It's far from the fun that Aru is. But I also listened to the audiobook and as I'm still bad with those that might be reason it didn't resonate with me as much. The thing that annoyed me the most was Riley lying for so long to her friend and even worse to the face of a goddess?! Like ... wow. 8D You summon a goddess who asks the truth of you so she can save your sister und you dare to lie to her?? I'm not okay with this. "8D It got better from there on though and I am actually very interested in the sequel (I will read this instead of listening. I learned my lesson.)

Falling for You (Katharina  B. Gross): I got this book for free in exchange for review on that German Goodreads ripoff site. But when I'm asked beforehand to write a real review with sensible thoughts I get real picky while reading. Like with bad books where you start to notice every little nasty detail? I do that. It's not really fun. "8D So half the stuff that irked me I probably wouldn't have had a second thought about when reading normally. So the book was fine. Nothing great but easy enough to read. (Also after reading a really bad book later, I found that this one really has some good points.)

With everything I read the month felt really long. But it was also interesting, because in every book there's something that connects it to the next (want to know some? Two Bas/zes, shitty ex-husbands, magical tattoos, slaying demons and devils, too much magic for one person, graverobbing ...). And thanks to that, for the first time maybe, I could see clearly books that did certain things well against others who did the same things not so well. My first April book was a total letdown (in points of worldbuilding and romance among others) and having it in comparison to all the good March books is so intruiging.

The Last Fallen Realm

I appreciate how Mr and Mrs Oh took care of Riley when they completely forgot about her in the second book. Like “we don’t remember her at all but I guess she’s still our daughter”

And in the third book, they saw Dahl and like “Yeah, I guess we’re going to adopt this one too.”

“There is light within us all, as there is darkness within us all. These two absolutes make us whole. This is the way of the universe.”

The Last Fallen Star, Graci Kim, pg 108

The Last Fallen Star- Graci Kim

"The Last Fallen Star": ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

No Warnings

Review from my Goodreads

Rick Riordan Presents Reviews:

(Others to come)

When I was younger, I tried to get into reading books through Audiobooks and realized after getting half way through a certain novel ACOTAR that I didn't like audiobooks.

Well I think that I have changed my opinion since I've started listening to audiobooks again.

Riley Oh's journey really felt nostalgic to me and reminded me of my younger years. It reminded me of Percy Jackson by the way Riley's voice appeared. I also loved how the novel is about healing and the love of a family, which is even shown through some of the background characters. There is one character (David) who feels like he's just tossed into the novel to keep the plot going. It would be cool to get a spin off or some short story about David as a whole or even more of him in the next two novels (which I don't expect since he's such a small side character).

My main complaint about this book is the way the characters flow together. As I stated above, a lot of characters feel like they are only part of the story to move the plot along.

I'm not meaning deities and adult figures by the way. I've already touched up on David as my example from earlier. And then there's Taeyo who's introduction flows a bit better, but if he is supposed to be the third to a trio of heroes, I wish there was some more development in his relationship with Riley and Emmett.

But overall, I really loved this novel. Listening to it was wonderful and so was finishing the physical book. I love Riley and I can't wait to see what other adventures she will have.

someone p l e a s e talk to me about the gifted clans series

i'm desperate

and @iam1withthepeggy is too stubborn to read the series even though she absolutely should

my grandma got this advance proof from her coworker and gave it to me

Caleb and Cal are besties actually

✨🌙   𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐆 ->  @404ama

misc solangelo pen doodles

Riley-yes. i am going to save my sister, please my goddess, and get my best friend closure. oh and also save the world ig

babies

meet the shyyyo bird

Just a few more 😅

*spoilers*

The fact that Riley is the last fallen star makes so much sense and explains the whole all elements being fire thing.

Stars are burning balls of gas (fire) so it makes sense that Riley has a disproportionate amount of elemental fire.

Footprints are left in their wake one by one on the blanket of snow, step by step as Dáinsleif treads the grounds of unknown lands. No sight of humankind nor of any shape or form of any civilization left behind or human activity whatsoever. Only monsters he hasn't seen before, while they are reminiscent of Abyss-affiliated fiends judging by the powers they draw and sometimes the anthropomorphic form they have. As star beasts in Teyvat, these are no laughing matter nor deserve to let one's guard down no matter how skilled one may be.

The sheer cold and snow that never seems to melt begets curiosity within the seraph's mind, ever wondering about the ecosystem of this world and if that is the reason why there is no human life here— or perhaps there may be none at all to be had if humans don't exist in this place. Dáinsleif is cognizant of the fact that inhospitable lands can be incompatible with other forms of life, too.

Not long before he decides to rest does he see from afar metallic fences and machinery that he opts for walking some more and have a look, albeit never intruding into territory he doesn't know. Whoever or whatever created this, he cannot be sure whether they will act kindly within his presence. Where creations lay so must loom nearby their creators and ere long does Dáinsleif find out that said creators are humans. Good, so long as mankind exists in this star, so his possibilities to learn about this vast universe will increase.

Rubescent lips part to heave a content sigh for such pleasant discovery and so Dáinsleif turns on his heels to leave. His aching muscles beg for rest, so does his mind after an undetermined amount of time walking and seeing little more than a vast albor ocean of snow. Somewhere discreet where he cannot be found yet not too far from the settlement is the chosen location to rest until a fox's cry causes his guard to be up once more, trained eyes in search of any presence that must've caused the tundra animal to be in distress.

Against his aching muscle's will, he rouses on his feet and searches for any living being activity within his vicinities. The source of the cry is found with immediacy as soon as a man's figure —judging by his muscular-looking back and broad shoulders— crouching catches his attention. With one hand he holds the poor fox in place while it struggles to thrash about in order to break free from his grasp and with the other snow is grabbed and brought to his lips. Despite the oddity of eating or drinking snow, stellar pupils take notice of a patch of blood making itself evident through the fabric of his top-wear on his arm.

❝You are hurt.❞ Only after these words abandon his lips does the seraph berate himself mentally at the prospect that the man may not understand the language. Even so, his voice stands low and gentle, tone does wonders to communicate feelings when language cannot establish a bridge of understanding. Dáinsleif ignores if what little fauna that lives in these snowy plains may be drawn to blood and thus put the man in danger, or if his life is endangered depending on the amount of blood that was spilled. His index finger points towards his own arm, pointing to the location of the other's injury to make himself clearer through signals. ❝Blood loss is detrimental in a place like this and I happen to have some medical knowledge.❞ One step brings him closer to the man, slow and measured to not generate hostility. His hand stretches towards him, an invitation. ❝Do you need help?❞

@longzhua ✦

There’s a lot of stupid debate because of a certain YouTuber about if Star Wars is for boys or girls. You’re all wrong. It’s for Carrie Fisher. She said it herself.

✨The star in the galaxy ✨