Men often described the girl as having hair the color of wheat. Others called it the color of caramel, or occasionally the color of honey. The girl wondered why men so often used food to describe women's features. There was a hunger to such men that was best avoided.

— Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

Jude Duarte : The Queen of Monsters

"And if the serpent grows in monstrousness and corruption, if it poisons the land of Elfhame itself, then let me be the queen of monsters. Let me be feared and never again afraid. Let me have everything I ever wanted, everything I ever dreamed, and eternal misery along with it. Let me live on with an ice shard through my heart."

- Queen of Nothing, Holly Black

"Among the monsters, I am well hidden; who looks for a leaf in a forest?"

- Night at a Circus, Angela Carter

"The world does not repays me for my heavenly sins, so I relish in my throne of lies, for what is lie if not the truth concealed."

📚 What are some underrated books that you’ve read this year?? Happy Thursday, Bookworms … Have you read any books this year that you feel are underrated? I’ve read a few, and the first one that came to mind was *Iron Widow* by Xiran Jay Zhao! (Also, throwback photo because it was pouring rain yesterday and too dark to take photos.) I read this book back in January, and it’s so good. I don’t see it around much, but everyone should read it. I have the sequel preordered and I can’t wait to devour it. ❤️ What are some underhyped books that you loved this year?? 🌲 📚 🌲 📚 🌲 📚 #AlltheBookDec22 #MyFictionalMusings #CourtofReadingDec22 #Reaing ingintheWeb 🌲 📚 🌲 📚 🌲 📚 #ironwidow #xiranjayzhao #bookstack #yabooks #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booknerd #booklover #bookphotography #books #reading #bookrecs #goodreads #bookobsessed #yafantasy #fantasybooks #bookcommunity #booksaremagic #readmorebooks #cozyreading #bookaesthetic #bookcommunity #readingisfundamental #fiction #readingtime #ilovebooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CmL_8INOkUi/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Tina Mains found out on her twelfth birthday that she was not an ordinary human girl as she had believed — rather, she was the clone of an epic alien hero, who died before she was born. Somewhere buried inside Tina was all the knowledge and memories of Captain Argentian.

EVERYTHING You Need to Know Before Promises Stronger Than Darkness!

💬 What has been your favorite read so far this year? 🤎📖 So many people have been recommending A Far Wilder Magic by @allisonhsaft to me, so I’ve decided to read it next month. Have you read it yet? I’m so excited to dive in!! 🌿🤎 Thank you to @wednesdaybooks for gifting me this copy. . . . h a s h t a g s : #afarwildermagic #allisonsaft #youngadultbooks #yafantasy #fantasybooks #yabooks #bookblogger #bookstagrammer #goodreads #bookbloggersofinstagram #bookworm #bookhoarder #reads #yalit #bookloversofinstagram #booklife #booklovers #booksaremagic #atmospheric #bookaesthetics #cozyaesthetic #hyggehome #neutraldecor #mybeigelife #coffeeandseasons #booksandcoffee #coffeelove (at A Magical World) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5qLTfO-3x/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

A custom binding of Eragon by @christopher_paolini that we did for a fan! We like dragons and we like books, so this was a match made in heaven and bound in our workshop. Send us your custom commissions for your favorite books and titles to www.geekifyinc.com , we love getting cool projects like this! #eragon #christopherpaolini #dragon #book #literature #fantasy #yafantasy https://www.instagram.com/p/CjLX-y1rA_M/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀💚☘️ Name a green book you love! I’ll go first: Fangirl (mint green) •——————————————————————————• #bookstack #bookspines #bookish #greenbooks #stpatricksday #beautifulbooks #bookworm #constantreader #bookphotography #readerlife #readersofinstagram #booknerdigans #bibliophilelife #bookaddict #booklove #instabook #yafantasy #bookaholic #yabookstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp5skkBgb-d/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hate is such a strong emotion. Much more powerful than indifference. But those who burn with hate can also love just as intensely. Can't they? When you hate–or love–do you do so with all your heart? So much that it feels as if you might die from it?

– Falling Kingdoms (2012-2018) - Morgan Rhodes

Throne of Glass - Series Review

tl:dr - A true-to-genre series that delivers no ground breaking concepts but provides a marathon of enjoyable mental cardio

I recently finished reading the Throne of Glass series per a recommendation from a friend. I listened to the first 4 books and then read the remaining 4. Tower of Dawn was my favorite book from the series purely for Hasar’s line in how “she needed a fatter ass for her lover to grab at night.” I will not expand. My favorite character was probably Lysandra because she was so viciously competent and felt like the most well-rounded “human” character.

The story felt well paced with enough intrigue to keep me reading (even in the face of great irritation at the audio-book cadence*). It continuously delivered on action and visceral drama and climaxed with a satisfying conclusion to the epic 5000 page tale. The characters and world were robust and communicated effectively, albeit not entirely original. 

This is probably my greatest criticism of the series. Throne of Glass digs its heels hard into almost every trope YA fantasy has to offer. A few of the author’s personal favorites became very apparent simply by their frequency (enemies-to-lovers in some form or another applied to well over 70% of the main romances in this series). 

There was everything starting with the impossibly beautiful, dark, mysterious and deadly main characters, who: everyone falls in love with, is near-never outsmarted, and always has a lifetime of trauma before the age of 17 (including murdered parents and abuse by whipping [why is it always whipping?]). Relatively generic magic systems of bursting elements; main characters “discovering” their magic then becoming immediately competent and disproportionately powerful; larger-than-life dark lords; threats of worlds plunging into darkness; prophecies; a pantheon of (revealed to be false) gods; and a generic Christmas reskin, are just a few of the tropes ToG features. Most importantly however, we mustn’t leave out how almost every character of significance is beautiful beyond reason, hot, sexy, incredibly competent, and always outfitted with either the most alluring curves, or hardest muscle known to the genre. Oh, and why is that fantasy heroines are always sluts for chocolate? What is that?

The heavy presence and soon-forged expectation of these tropes allowed me to skim guiltlessly over large swaths of the story. I could tell I already knew the gist of most plot points without actually having to read them.

Now I don’t have anything truly against tropes however, or the use of them in storytelling. Nor do I think the absence of them guarantees a good narrative. However their overuse can make it difficult for a work to really “stand apart” from any others in the same genre. This is the case for ToG. It is a very engaging world but there is nothing truly original in it. I think a reader’s steadfast allegiance to this series will largely depend on if it was the first of its kind they read.

Besides suffering additionally from little YA genre stylings, such as the overuse of the word “shit,” (specifically in this case the phrase “all went to shit,”) and a variance of dramatic transitions loosely summarized as  “all faded to black,” ToG delivers an excellent, cohesive, and engaging story worth the time of any reader looking for a YA fantasy book.

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*Now let’s talk about the audiobooks. My opinions on the audiobook performance does not impact my overall sentiment to the content, as laid out above. BUT! To put it bluntly, I could not stand the audiobooks. The inflection, cadence, and overall delivery dripped with an arrogance and haughtiness (which, to be fair, were all very fitting for the main character) that ultimately oozed an unpleasant “pick-me”/”middle-school cringe” energy. (Look at me! I’m so dark and mysterious and cool. I’m an ASsAsInnnnNNNN *fweu* *fweu* [as I toss imaginary knives at my friends on the playground, promptly run up the steps 3 at a time and lift an entire chair over my head because, I’m so agile, and strong])

Okay, that’s all. Bye bye.

Arabella Tulley was the heart and beauty of her clan. Waves of deep auburn hair swung about her waist.  Warm chocolate eyes revealed swirls of warm honey in firelight.  A Soft spray of freckles dusted her nose and soft cheeks perfectly, which were flawlessly structured above a smile as gorgeous as it was contagious.  Her voice sang so sweet it was near angelic as words danced from her tongue and enchanted all those who bent an ear.  Countless men and women thought themselves in love at the sight of her.  More often than not, she found little gifts at her door.  Bouquets of roses, peonies, and foxglove were her favorite.  She’d been gifted boxes of fudge, little toffees, baskets of cheese, smoked meats, and, not least of all, poems and letters.   Shopkeepers offered her lush gowns of velvet and satin without charge only to find themselves sold out of every last piece in weeks to come.  Everyone wanted to emulate the gorgeous Arabella. While her beauty was the pleasure of those around her, it was nothing but a burden to Arabella herself.

HerRealm

Do you want to keep reading? 

Love wasn’t enough and trying wasn’t enough and nothing we did changed anything! It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed … something…

— T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge

Zhara review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, multiple POVs, secret groups, humor Big thanks to Netgalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! While there are two POVs in this book, it's really Zhara's story. She undergoes a lot of development throughout this book and comes out stronger, and more herself, on the other side. At the same time, Han does play a major role in the story and has some of his own growth, it's just at a milder scale than Zhara. It's clear from the beginning that Zhara loves her sister and would do pretty much anything for her, even if it means dealing with her stepmother. That loyalty and sense of protection also carries through to some of the other people, particularly the kids, that Zhara comes across that are in need of help. She's also smart and fairly resourceful, despite her not thinking much of herself at times. Han is definitely a himbo. He works out a lot and prizes being in physical shape but is often one of, if not the last, person to put things together. Like Zhara, Han is also desperate to try and save his younger brother, though from a very different threat. He is fairly innocent (and as the synopsis says, easily flustered), which the other characters tease him mercilessly about, and makes him a fun character to read. Xu is Han's best friend and might be one of my favorite characters. I love how upbeat they are and yet at the same time they have their moments when they can be more serious. I also feel like Xu has a very strong sense of identity. They don't get a POV, but they have a lot of character to them that I enjoyed and I think it would be fun if we do get their POV at some point. I also really treasure their friendships with Han, Zhara, and Jiyi. Jiyi comes into the story a bit later and is endearing for different reasons. She's fairly straightforward about things, to the point of coming across as gruff, but it's clear that she's very knowledgeable about her field of study (and very accomplished) and that she cares about what happens if the worst were to come to pass. Yulana is also a late-comer in the story, but I absolutely love her. She's got somewhat of a mysterious vibe when she's first introduced, and things stay like that for a bit, but she's actually a pretty open person once we get past that. Like with Xu, I hope we get her POV at some point, and I suspect she's a more likely candidate for that than Xu is, lol. This book does a good job of including some lighter and more humorous moments amid the more high drama/stakes scenes. At times it did feel a but juvenile, but overall I think the effect worked. The funny moments allowed for relationships to develop between the characters and so we as readers cared when those relationships were put to the test or were in jeopardy. On the surface, magic is banned because magicians turn into abominations, but of course things are never so simple. Learning about the magic system and how things had gotten bad was interesting. The linguistic element of magic was definitely something that I enjoyed. There's a whole history and culture that's been driven underground or erased because of the abominations, but so few people know the truth of what happened, and what happened is very different from what people think it is. Of course there are allegories a plenty here, and a lot of aspects of the magical purge can be related to history or current events in our world in a way that's written very neatly without being overbearing. Overall, I enjoyed this book and that the high stakes were interspersed with lighter moments. I look forward to seeing the characters in the future books and am definitely hoping for more page time from Xu and Yulana in particular.

📚 Do you have any interesting reading habits?? And, what are you reading this weekend?? Happy Friday, Bookworms! The weekend is finally here. Do you have any fun reading plans this weekend? What will you be reading?? 💕 I am hoping to finish up a*Gilded* this weekend, but I’m not sure what I want to start after that. I have way too many options to choose from. 😅 What are you reading this weekend?? And do you have any interesting reading habits? I have a few… One is that I’ve made reading a priority recently, and try to read at least an hour a day. I’m currently on a 34 day reading streak, so that seems to be working for me. I also try to have reading material with me at all times so I can read whenever I get a free moment. And I’ve been logging all my reading stats and books with Bookly and Goodreads. It’s all very organized. 🤣 I Ah at reading habits do you have?? 📚 📖 📚 📖 📚 📖 #AlltheBooksMar23 #MyFictionalMusings #CourtofReadingMar23 #ReadingintheWeb 📚 📖 📚 📖 📚 📖 #bookstack #bookpile #prettybooks #shelfie #bookshelf #books #reading #fantasybooks #yafantasy #yabooks #bookstagram #booknerd #booklover #ilovebooks #booksaremagic #bookcommunity #bookphoto #booksofinstagram #igreads #currentlyreading #bookaesthetic #readinghabits #fridayreads #weekendreading #tbr #cozyreading https://www.instagram.com/p/CpU0LnIOP0C/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Happy #InternationalWomenDay! This year, the campaign focuses on the equity with the message, #EmbraceEquity. Women have come a long way but we still have a lot of work to do and that is shown with recent events. More opportunities need to be created in order for our society to create a more equal outcome. And reading books are a great way to start. Some of the titles shown here are a brilliant start but if you are looking for more and books that are more recent, head to the link in my bio for more fuller recommended list! 🔥🔥🔥 Books Shown: "Fix the System Not the Women" by @laura_bates__ "Activist" by @louisareid "Run Rebel" by @manjeet_k_mann "Misogynation" by @laura_bates__ "Monsters Born and Made" by @tanviberwah "Kiki Kallira Conquers a Curse" by @sangumandanna "My Pen is The Wing of A Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women" "Abolition.Feminism.Now." by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent,Erica R. Meiners and Beth E. Richie "We Are All Witches: Bad WomenTo Live Your Life By" by @mairidhonn #books #books2023 #Bookstagram #nonfictionbooks #nonfiction #britishbooks #laurabates #ukbooks #ukyabooks #yabooks #novelsinverse #yafantasy #middlegradebooks #witchcraft #iwd2023 #genderequality #equity #louisareid #feminism #feministreads #booksbywomen https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpi1vYYLPYm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

✩ THE LAST HOURS TRILOGY 💬 Favorite #cassieclare book/series/character… andddd GO! 🤎📖 Happy Release Week to Chain of Thorns by @cassieclare1!! Thank you to @simonteen for gifting me copies of these books! 🤎🫶🏻 . . . #thelasthours #cassandraclare #yafantasy #shadowhunters #chainofthorns #chainofiron #chainofgold #desksetup https://www.instagram.com/p/CoH5yehuLOv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

It’s SIX DAYS (😱) until SILVER hits shelves and I just wanted to take a moment to thank @lbardugo, @authorjenlynnbarnes, @authorjelle, @elimpix, and @stephanie_garber for reading the book early, and for the incredibly kind words they’ve shared about it. I admire all of you SO much as humans and storytellers and I’m beyond honored to have your support! 🥺💙 Thank you, thank you, thank you! #bookstagram #alexandrabracken #silverinthebone #yafantasy https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYkv42P8gY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=