MELTOTHEANY

hi hi friends – i think this might surprise you, but 2026 is actually the first year of my becoming a WSFS member, and being able to vote on the hugo awards! every year, so much of my reading just organically shows up on this list of awards, but then i always find myself prioritizing my reading based off the things i haven’t read yet! so 2026, i finally just paid the membership fee and decided to join in on the judging! i also really want to say that i wholeheartedly recommend becoming a member of the world science fiction society and being able to vote on these awards, especially if you are an sff reviewer! it has been such an amazing experience. also, it is so worth the money. $50 gets you a hugo awards voter packet that is filled with so many books, so many video game codes, so many shows and movies, and truly so much more. it is so worth it in every way, besides just letting your voice be heard within the community! okay, on to this blog post and the content i am making around this voting season! i am trying to 100% read as many categories as i can, while for sure prioritizing best novel and best novella! this post is going to be all about the six novella nominees and my reviews for each one of them! the way that the hugo voting works, is that you give all the books a number rating from 6-1 in order of your favorites! so, i am going to review all of the nominees of this category — from least favorite, to favorite! (the last review is what my #1 favorite of the category is!)  #6 ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Cinder House by Freya Marske   this story opens up with ella becoming a ghost and being forced to take care of the house that her stepmother and stepsisters live in. some years pass, and ella realizes she can leave the house with a little help, yet no one can see her, but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying writing letters and attending the ballet. that is until a fae from the night market can actually see ella and makes a deal with her that will help her attend the three night ball that the local charming prince is hosting to find a new princess. i feel very torn on how i feel about this cinderella reimaging, but upon closing the book i felt like it was just okay. there is a lot of good within these pages about abuse, the different forms of abuse, and the power of having people see you, hear you, connect with you. and to be as vague as possible… i just don’t know how much i enjoyed reading about the connection(s) that ella found. but then, i went on goodreads and i saw moots saying that the author said this was an analogy for long-covid, which instantly clicked into place for me, and i found myself enjoying it more upon realizing that. so i don’t know, this was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but i am still happy i read it, and maybe this review will help you enjoy it more if you decide to pick it up! (and… you all know i love a fae bargain in a night market, come on hehe) trigger + content warnings: loss of father in past, loss of mother in past, poison, blood, death, murder, abuse, torture, talk of war, talk of assault in past (maybe sa insinuation), suicide mention, insinuation of animal abuse in past, abandonment in past, grief, insulation of dv in past, compulsion magic  #5 ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3) by T. Kingfisher “​There was something desperately frightening about​ seeing a light underground where no light should be.” alex easton is traveling to an abandoned coal mine in west virginia in this third installment of this series. each novella really does have its own standalone mystery that you are solving alongside alex, but i still recommend reading these in order. alex is a nonbinary retired soldier, who comes to the states to help a good friend, whose family is in possession of this abandoned mine… and whose cousin is the most recent person to go missing inside its deepness. i think that’s all i want to say, because i really would have never guessed in a million years where this story went. but i really enjoyed this – i very much felt the scary atmosphere, i respected the themes of the h...

original tag created by readlikewildfire + earl grey books! hello friends! happy july! happy mid year (omg i can’t believe)!! 2026 has been a wild reading year for me so far, but i feel like it has also been pretty solid in terms of quality! this is always my favorite ancient tag to do, so i can’t wait to talk about my reading for the first six months of the year! and please link me your mid year tags, so i can add all the good reads to my tbr for the last half of 2026! ♡ 1. best book you’ve read so far in 2026 ☆ Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman ⤷ just obsessed with everything about this, my favorite of 2026 as of now! ♡ 2. best sequel you’ve read so far in 2026 ☆ A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #8) by Matt Dinniman ⤷ i just love everything about this series so very much! i can’t believe we are getting so close to the end! ♡ 3. new release you haven’t read yet, but want to ☆ Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi ⤷ i truly cannot believe i have not read my most anticipated release of the year yet! ♡ 4. most anticipated release for the second half of the year ☆ A Trade of Blood (Shadow of the Leviathan, #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett ⤷ i do have an arc of this though (and i’m so thankful!) but i am extra excited for Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang and The Fires of December (Hoid’s Travails, #3) by Brandon Sanderson, too! and… i would be lying if i also didn’t say The Last King of Faerie (The Wicked Powers, #1) by Cassandra Clare! ♡ 5. biggest disappointment ☆ Rites of the Starling (Shield of Sparrows, #2) by Devney Perry ⤷ i do not dnf often, but this was such a let down that i had to stop at 100 pages in (and i loved Shield of Sparrows!) ♡ 6. biggest surprise ☆ Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor ⤷ i went into this not knowing anything, and oh my gosh it ended up being everything ♡ 7. favorite new author (debut or new to you) ☆   H.M. Wolfe, who wrote Daggermouth (The Heart, #1) ⤷ i truly was so impressed with this story, and the writing, and will for sure read more from this debut author! ♡ 8. newest fictional crush ☆ The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee ⤷  i truly don’t think i have a fave new crush, but i really loved everything about isako, and how badass she is, so she’s probably the closest to a crush that i can think of ♡ 9. newest favorite character ☆ elsebed from The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden ⤷ and her cat! ♡ 10. book that made you cry ☆ The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow ⤷ to be fair, i cry so easily! but ahhh ;___; ♡ 11. book that made you happy ☆ This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (Maggie the Undying, #1) by Ilona Andrews ⤷ a new ilona andrews world (and characters) to fall in love with? actually no better feeling. ♡ 12. most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received) ☆ Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar ⤷ just in love with everything about this cover ♡ 13. what book(s) do you need to read by the end of the year? ☆ Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker ☆ A Long and Speaking Silence (The Singing Hills Cycle, #7) by Nghi Vo ⤷ aka: the rest of the books on my 2026 tbr ☆ Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke  ⤷ aka: the most buzzy book of the year, i feel. and i just have to know what i think of this one before award season is here! it does make me laugh, because i feel like my reading has just been so centered on voting for the hugo awards for the last couple of months, but i have truly had so many good reads because of that voting packet! i will for sure do a couple posts about the awards and what i’m voting for! but i hope the last half of the year is even kinder to both of us and our reading! thank you so much for spending so time with me and, again, please link me your mid year posts, too! happy reading, friends! ♡ old mid year book tags: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 goodreads | storygraph | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon | wishlist

oh hello friends! how are you? i hope well. i know i have most certainly not been the best blogger this year, but let me try to make up for it this following week! also, let me type up the obligatory how in the heck is it mid year through this year already!? i feel like we always say that, but i truly feel like 2026 has gone by quicker than all the other years’ quick feeling combined! and sadly, i feel like my reading has reflected that, especially during this first quarter! a little life update: i was in michigan for three months this year because of some family things! but to make it an ever quicker update: my mom is doing amazing and my grandfather is doing as amazing as can he can be. and i feel very lucky that i was able to be back home for three months this year, but i am happy to be back on the west coast! but during those first three months, i was only able to read nine things, and that has been about what i read during a month in prior years! so i thought it might be a fun idea to just make a blog post reviewing all of the things i’ve for these first two quarters, and before all my midyear content starts up! so without further ado let me tell you all about the first nine things i read in 2026!  ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ The Summer War by Naomi Novik ★★★★ i am always going to have a soft spot for siblings doing anything to protect their siblings (it’s the virgo eldest sister in me, i do fear)! and this one? ahhh so good, so close to a five star. which makes me laugh because i have such a love-hate relationship with novik’s books, but this one really worked for me completely. i don’t want to say too much, because this is so short, but we follow celia and her two very different brothers, going through two very different things, while she is navigating her relationship very differently with both. but this is also very much a story about war, and carrying weight from your parents mistakes, and making a happier story for yourself. trigger + content warnings: torture, homophobia, hate crime, attempted suicide, talk of suicide, thoughts of suicide, mensuration, blood, talk of war, mention of stillbirth, lots of mentions of loss of mothers during birth, abandonment, captivity, control magic, grief  ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer ★★★★ “Libraries are models of gift economies, providing free access not only to books but also music, tools, seeds, and more. We don’t have to own everything.” this was a really nice short hug of a story, that really is all about community, we can do with abundance, gift economy, distributing wealth, and the power of berry picking! i’m not saying this information is new, especially with everything we are able to see in our world right now in 2026, but it’s an important reminder and feels so good just sitting with a very educated and kind human, reminding you that you’re not alone with their nonfiction book. trigger + content warnings: colonization, horrors of capitalism, polluted water, climate change, pandemic mention  ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2) by Travis Baldree ★★★★ .5) Bookshops & Bonedust ★★★★★ 1.) Legends & Lattes ★★★★★ *.) Goblins & Greatcoats ★★★★ sometimes you read a book at the wrong time, but sometimes you read a book at the right time, and i think i might have read this one at the right time. after i read the epilogue in bookshops & bonedust , i really thought i knew where this story was going, with the building of a comfy and safe feeling little bookshop! but sadly, that is life, some things go unexpectedly scary sometimes, especially when you just don’t know what you’re going to do to feel better. in this new installment in this very beloved series, we get to watch fern want something different, because what she has doesn’t feel enough anymore. and she winds up traveling very unexpectedly with a legendary elf adventurer, and a familiar goblin thief! i just really enjoyed this, and i really appreciated the reminder that sometimes you don’t know everything that’s going to happen, and that...

Goodreads | Amazon US | B&N | Blackwell’s | Bookshop “I love women talking to each other. I love women reading each other, through letters and journals and flowers, offering up the stories of themselves to each other’s tender scrutiny. I love women being friends and being lovers, in all of their shapes, across the breadth and depth of their lives.” i am a huge amal el-mohtar fan, so when i found out she was getting a story collection published i knew it was going to be everything. i truly loved this so much and was just so impressed by the flow of the entire collection. i also loved the themes and throughlines from glass and the meaning of fragility, to wizards and the wars the create, to wood and the act of being carved, to flowers with and without thorns, to witches the magic of storytelling, to birds/owls and the things they see, to tea and the comfort that can come with a cup, to letters and the way we can communicate in so many different ways. okay, that was a bit of a gush, but truly these stories really ebbed and flowed from one to another and i loved everything the reading experience. ━━♡ SEASONS OF GLASS AND IRON ★★★★ “Why shouldn’t shoes help their wearers travel? Perhaps, she thinks, what’s strange is the shoes women are made to wear: shoes of glass; shoes of paper; shoes of iron heated red-hot; shoes to dance to death in.” two women with glass and iron under their feet, experiencing different kinds of abuse for survival, but realize they can share their magic with each other because they both choose it. this was just perfect and i loved reading every word. wonderful way to start this collection and truly an amazing titular story. cw/tw: abuse, talk of abuse in past, talk of injury ━━♡ THE GREEN BOOK ★★★ you all know i adore unique storytelling and epistolary narrated tales, and this really has that, but with such an eerie feeling sinister vibe. i feel like this was an amazing tease to what i wish was a full-length story about a magical book, a girl whose wishes didn’t matter, and a sisterhood with secrets. cw/tw: blood ━━♡ MADELEINE ★★★★ “She wonders at how change comes in like a thief in the night, dismantling our sense of self one bolt and screw at a time until all that’s left of the person we think we are is a broken door hanging off a rusty hinge, waiting for us to walk through.” this one might have impacted me harder, because i am currently back in michigan while reading this, in part to help my family with my grandfather who has alzheimers. grieving loved ones, grieving life, grieving change you didn’t ask for, its all can feel so unnavigable. but having someone to figure things out with, to believe in light with, to hold hope with – it makes living feel traversable. cw/tw: alzheimer’s, talk of loss of mother, grief, talk of loss of father, one sentence cancer mention, loneliness ━━♡ THE LONELY SEA IN THE SKY ★★★ we are inside the journal of a planetary geologist who is disassociating, while others are discovering teleportation from diamonds on neptune.. the cost of things, sometimes so unnecessary, can be so very high. cw/tw: discussions of mental health, disassociation, suicide ideation ━━☆ SONG FOR AN ANCIENT CITY a beautiful poem of yearning ━━♡ AND THEIR LIPS RANG WITH THE SUN ★★★★ chosen at birth to be taught a ritual that you will eventually pass down while losing your voice. this is the story of one sun woman who chose a different life and i loved it a lot. cw/tw: blood, pregnancy ━━♡ A TALE OF ASH IN SEVEN BIRDS ★★★★ “We fall as cinders, scattered on the wind. We fall as leaves, a bruising brightness—and lightly on foreign shores, foreign ports, foreign parts. Our shapes unseamed, our mouths untongued, we swallow our burning into new bodies. We break space around our hearts, keep our memories nestled in the hollows of bones built from the outside in.” i really loved this one, reading about seven different types of birds and the horro...

Goodreads | Amazon US | B&N | Blackwell’s | Bookshop ARC provided by TOR – thank you so much “I’d tried every genre under the sun since, but fantasy was my vice of choice.” i truly feel like i was raised on the paranormal romance that were held in my mom’s library growing up. i know i’ve mentioned it a lot on the internet, but i just have an extra big nostalgic spot in my heart for the writing duo that is ilona andrews. so when i heard they were publishing the start of a brand new series with tor, i knew i had to beg tor for an arc! and then i found out it was an isekai (where someone is transported into one of their favorite fictional worlds) i truly about passed out from excitement. and i am very happy to report that, as of the end of the first quarter of 2026, this is the only book i have given five stars to this year! this stories follow maggie, who lives a quiet life delivering groceries in our world, but at the very start of this story, wakes up in the magical city of kair toren, capital of the kingdom of rellas, where maggie’s favorite book series of all time centers around. yet, this beloved series is written by a very elusive writer who doesn’t take part in any social media. and this series has only two books published, with a third that feels like it’s truly never going to see the light of day. (yes, very much giving the kingkiller chronicle!) maggie wakes up at the very end of chapter one of the very first book. maggie quickly, and luckily, figures out where the minor plot points will take her to safety, while soon realizing that maybe she can use the information of some of the major plot points to gain advantage and survival in this world. oh, and she also quickly, and not so luckily, finds out that she cannot be actually killed within this world, yet she doesn’t know the full limitations of that. this world is ruled by eight noble families, all with very different types of power and protection, and maggie realizes how hard survival is going to be regardless of how much she has memorized of these two book’s pages! yet we get to watch her navigate this world, maybe with the help of a deadly swordsman and some others who weren’t given page time prior. and we watch this little crew try to stop the future of a bloodthirsty dictator who is truly to start a civil war within those eight families, and will truly do anything to gain more and more power. oh, and one of my new favorite plots in my fantasy – we also have a very dark murder mystery to solve! (this story truly does get pretty dark a lot of times, so please use the trigger and content warnings i wrote down below if you need them.) okay, i think that’s all i should say, but i truly ate this up completely. whether these authors are writing about a detective in a post-apocalyptic alt, or a magical innkeeper who facilitates a neutral space for aliens, or a normal girl waking up in her favorite dark fantasy world, it all just really works for me every single time. and i am not sure what it is about their writing, but i truly never want to put any of their books down. and the romance in these books, very much including this one? it will hit for me each and every time without fail. trigger + content warnings: violence, blood, death, murder, immense torture, graphic descriptions of gore, loss of loved ones, grief, talk of starvation / not eating, vomit, anxiety, drowning, mention of sa in general / mention of sa to side character, human trafficking / child trafficking, kidnapping, slavery, talk of physical abuse to a child, battle, war, genocide,talk of plague, a lot of talk of ptsd, mention of horse death, talk of killing a dogs / puppies, talk of miscarriage, and just a warning that this does have a cliffhanger ending >.< goodreads | storygraph | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon | wishlist

happy 2026 friends! today i am going to talk about all the 84 things i read in 2025! overall, 2025 was a good reading year for me, but if i had one takeaway it would be that 2025 was the year of tomes for me. you’ll see this more in the statistics portion coming up next, but i read 13 books that were over 700 pages! i truly was reading all the long books, and long series, all year long (i’m looking at you, zodiac academy and dungeon crawler carl)! i keep being a little hard on myself for not hitting 100 books with ease like i used to, but truly i am just organically picking up so many more big books! and i am very proud and happy about those 36k pages! yet, i do wish i had more five stars this year too, even though i did read a couple books that i know will truly stay with me forever! 🩷 READING STATISTICS AND GRAPHS ☆ brock from let’s read’s reading spreadsheet + graph colors inspired by may ♡☆ even if i wish that the five star section could be a little bigger, i am still so very happy with how big the four star slice is! and the 50% fantasy is truly very pleasing to the eye, as well! i can’t believe how much less ya i have been reading over the last few years, but i do hope that maybe i can read a few more in 2026, maybe even with a few middle grades, too! i feel like this is the first year i’m saying this, but i do hope to raise up my arc number a little bit more in 2026, too! but i will always recognize the privilege of having advanced versions of stories, that are also free, and i am forever so thankful. but i really love these graphs, and i love seeing all the data over a whole read of reading! 💕 TOP TEN FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 ☆ 10.) A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping ☆ 9.) Sunrise on the Reaping ☆ 8.) The Buffalo Hunter Hunter ☆ 7.) Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng ☆ 6.) A Drop of Corruption ☆ 5.) The Butcher’s Masquerade ☆ 4.) Tusk Love ☆ 3.) The Raven Scholar ☆ 2.) Beloved ☆ 1.) The Saint of Bright Doors TEN YEARS OF BOOK REVIEWS let me try not to be emotional, but this marked my ten years of reviewing books and picking my favorite stories published in the year prior as a profile picture for the current year! over 1,000 books read these last ten years, and these three are my absolute favorites. i really wanted to do a top five, but i kept switching out books, but these three were always definite tops, so here we are with an even more insane recommendation! 💕 ☆ 3.) This Is How You Lose the Time War ☆ 2.) The Spear Cuts Through Water ☆ 1.) The Fifth Season bonus: my favorite publications from each of the respective years (and in parentheses I’ll say my favorite book of the year, because sometimes it overlaps and that’s fun, too! ☆ 2016 – crooked kingdom (traitor’s blade) ☆ 2017 – strange the dreamer (the fifth season) ☆ 2018 – the cruel prince (the cruel prince) ☆ 2019 – gideon the ninth (gideon the ninth) ☆ 2020 – the burning god (this is how you lose the time war) ☆ 2021 – she who became the sun (she who became the sun) ☆ 2022 – babel (babel) ☆ 2023 – he who drowned the world (the spear cuts through water) ☆ 2024 – the tainted cup (a memory called empire) ☆ 2025 – the raven scholar (the saint of bright doors) i truly can’t believe it has been ten years of profile pictures, year in reviews, and just being a part of the book community for so much of my life now. it really is one of the greatest blessings that life has given me, and i am always so very thankful. even just looking at that list above, i feel like you can really see me and my reading tastes change and grow and it truly just makes me so emotional. ahhh, i love you guys. thank you for everything. i hope the next decade is even more magical. and please let me know what your favorite book of 2025 was! 🩷 goodreads | storygraph | substack | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon | wishlist ♡ 2025 wrap ups: jan | feb | march | april | may | june | july | august | septe...

oh hello, friends! i hope you’re doing well! as you can probably tell, you know, it being ten days into the new year, i am a little behind still with end of 2025 things! but i am almost done! but first, i have to wrap up this last quarter of 2025, and talk about the 12 things i was able to read! because i was traveling so much at the end of the year, it was hard for me to fit reading in, i won’t lie! and i wouldn’t say it was a very successful reading quarter, because i only found two five star reads (frankenstein + buffalo hunter hunter), while also finding my most disappointing read of the year (the strength of the few)! but all in all, it was a decent reading quarter, and i am just thankful i was able to read a book a week! ❤️ Q4 STATISTICS reading spreadsheet created by brock + graph colors inspired by may ♡ some quick thoughts: omg, that five star slice is so small! but that publisher breakdown is pretty well distributed! i was buying the books while traveling, i won’t lie lol. and we always love a very equal 50% sff reading! ❤️ THREE FAVORITE READS OF Q4  (click title links for full reviews with detailed thoughts, feelings, and tw/cws!  ☆ Frankenstein ⤷ i can’t believe i was sleeping on this classic my whole life ☆ All That We See or Seem  ⤷ the american dream and how much of a lie it is being sold as ☆ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter ⤷ a story, in a story, in a story, impacting generation, after generation, after generation. Q4 BOOK HAUL  okay, friends! i think that’s everything! this one might feel a little shorter than the other quarters, but that’s just because i am very excited to finally get out my end of the year wrap up with all the charts, and data, and statistics, and favorites of 2025! but i do hope 2026 is going well for you and your families, and i am always sending you all so much love! ❤️ ♡ 2025 wrap ups: jan | feb | march | april | may | june | july | august | september | november & december goodreads | storygraph | substack | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon | wishlist

hi hi, friends! ❤️ i hope you’re all having a happy new year, and cozy reading season! i have just been so incredibly busy, because i went back home to michigan for three weeks, to spend time with my family! and ever since getting back, the time has just zoomed by! i haven’t read too much over these last two months, but i was able to approximate one book a week, so that makes me very happy! but i figured it would be easier to just merge both my november and december wrap ups together for you! ❤️ ✨ Sorrow and Starlight (Zodiac Academy, #8) by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti ⭐⭐ 1.) The Awakening ★★ 2.) Ruthless Fae ★★ 3.) The Reckoning ★★★ 4.) Shadow Princess ★★★★ 5.) Cursed Fates ★★★ .5) The Big A.S.S. Party ★★★ 6.) Fated Throne ★★★ 7.) Heartless Sky ★★★★ i am going to attempt to be as spoiler-free as i can possibly be, but this is the eighth, and penultimate, book in this series, so please read on with caution! but the very quick recap of where are characters are at in the start of this book is that darcy is quite literally dealing with shadows, tory has the imperial star and dealing with an immense amount of grief, orion is paying a debt that is very costly, the heirs are being tortured on enchanted treadmills (yes, you read that correctly), and darius is just no longer in the chat. basically, everything is on fire at the start of this book, and we get to watch everyone attempt to slowly put out the insane flames. obviously i didn’t love this one as much as others in the series. mostly because this was just too long and too filled with unnecessary filler. but i will say that this story heavily talks about propaganda, media abuse, and having a dictator of a leader descend into even deeper levels of evil before their citizen’s eyes. and those are things that i really appreciate, especially as an american starting 2026. lastly, these authors and their writing need to be studied, because they actually wove magic with me now loving seth so very much. and yes, i will finish this last book, hopefully very soon! trigger + content warnings: death, loss, grief, blood, suicidal thoughts, kidnapping, torture, rape mention (not mcs), sa attempted, self harm to get blood for an oath / spell, talk of child abuse in past, drowning, self sacrifice, magical experimentations, captivity, talk of fae eugenics, attacks at a school ✨ This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7) by Matt Dinniman ⭐⭐⭐ 1.) Dungeon Crawler Carl ★★★★★ 2.) Carl’s Doomsday Scenario ★★★★ 3.) The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook ★★★ 4.) The Gate of the Feral Gods ★★★★ 5.) The Butcher’s Masquerade ★★★★★ 6.) The Eye of the Bedlam Bride ★★★ “Blood was so much more red when it was spilled from someone you loved.” and just like that, i’m all caught up with this series, which actually feels insane to type. but here we are, entering the 9th floor, faction wars is finally here, thirty-two-thousand crawlers, fifty-thousand retired crawlers, and one-hundred-thousand enemies with weapons. the map is one big pie, separated in ten slices for ten different teams, and one castle in the middle that eventually needs to be captured, yet, that middle castle will be locked until only four team are left, and to capture another teams slice, you need to control their throne room for six hours, which will also allow you to capture their army! i know this seems like a lot of numbers, and a lot of rules, but i promise you the author does a much better job than i am doing right now. we also finally have the nagas, and a rule that donut and katia have to deal with. oh, and carl might have a spider in his chest as well! i really enjoyed my time with this one, even if it wasn’t a new favorite in the series for me. this one heavily talks about grief, and losing people we love that we should have more time with, but systems are in place that tell us that some people are just cogs in an evil capitalism wheel for the r...

oh hello, friends! i hope you’re all having a happy november! as i am typing this, i have a coffee, i’m comfy cozy in bed, and league of legends finals is about to begin! truly the dream for me lol. but i wanted to format up this wrap up and get it out for you all while waiting! october was a decent reading month for me, but i wish i could have finished a few more things before the month ended! and i feel like so many things i read were four stars! which is a good thing, but i only ended up giving five stars to one book and that was written in 1818, which feels insane, but here we are! okay okay, let’s get into the wrap up! ❤ ✨ Alchemised by SenLinYu ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I never get to choose you. I’m so tired of not getting to choose you.” this is a story about a holy war between paladins and necromancy magic. the majority of this book is flashbacks of wartime itself, but it is sandwiched between two parts of the current timeline where the paladins have lost the war and all the ramifications of that. our main character, helena, has been in a stasis captivity with her memory altered/blocked, but she is being given away to the high reeve, kane, who is greatly responsible for winning the war that killed her friends, and we watch as she is trying to piece together everything that happened alongside the reader. i am so sure that by now you all know what this book is about, so i am going to tell you things i really liked about this story. ☆ my favorite theme in this story is how helena is an overqualified immigrant, who was supposed to feel grateful for the opportunities she was given, where she was just isolated and overworked, while constantly being told she was replaceable, while doing the absolute most for the people who didn’t appreciate her. ☆ in general, i just really loved reading a story not only from the perspective of the hero’s best friend, but a healer who is not protected from seeing first hand all the horrors of war. quite literally forced to put back together pieces, over and over, in a losing war where people in power do not care about the cost as long as they are able to feel righteous. ☆ i loved the reworking of this story being a holy war, with gods, and blessings, and paladins with honor oaths. and I absolutely loved the reconciliation of what happens when you open your eyes and no more miracles are able to be created. (and forever a fan of alchemy and transmutation, too!) ☆ other countries not doing anything during a genocide until it impacts them or their people or, more importantly, when it impacts powerful leaders financially ☆ this story has a big emphasis on hands and what our main characters are able to do with them, which honestly brings me to tears to even type this. but how helena uses her hands in the war to heal, yet they kill all the same, and how kane’s hands were made for killing, yet he can so naturally heal with them. through this war, and being used by people all around them as nothing more than a tool for their destruction, both of their hands end up so very broken, and that stillness is forever gone. let me just move on, but my god, this imagery and accentuation throughout this story was really masterfully done, in my opinion. ☆ being forged into something you didn’t want to become, both by war and the people who were supposed to protect you, but also now being stronger for it (and both sides, and all the complicated feelings, that come with that) ☆ i also feel hard pressed to think of a story that utilizes flashbacks better than this one. it is very unique feeling, and so very effective letting this story be told in this manner. ☆ i swear, every time a ring was activated, i felt like i could feel it too >.< lol ☆ who gets to tell stories after wars are won, and who gets to be remembered and immortalized ☆ ivy, i love you ☆ i saw haunted house instead of clowns tiktok that said “it’s kane searching every place except for the one that mattered” ;___________; brb jumping out a window i truly kept going back and forth if i ...

original tag created by ariel bissett happy halloween, friends! let’s talk about the best type of scary – all the books i need to read before 2026 is here! i can’t believe it is already time to do this book tag, but this is truly my end of the year tbr, so i hope you all enjoy knowing what i am planning on reading for the rest of 2025! 🎃🍁 ♡ Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish? ☆This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7) by Matt Dinniman to be honest, i am a really bad dnf reader / put to the side reader! so i will just say this as my answer, because it is almost 1k pages, and i am very much in the middle of it, while also reading other things, therefore, it is taking me longer than i would like, yet i must complete this before the end of 2025! ♡ Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year? ☆ Good Spirits (Ghosted, #1) by B.K. Borison i feel like i always say the lion, the witch and the wardrobe (which is forever the right answer!), but i do plan on reading this christmas carol (i think?) inspired holiday book in november or december! and like, look at this cover? it better get me into the christmas spirit! (pun for sure intended!) ♡ Is there a new release you’re still waiting for? ☆ Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2) by Travis Baldree ☆ The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2) by James Islington november 11th is going to be quite the release day for me! not only are these two very anticipated reads for me, but i truly believe they both could make my best of 2025 list / 2026 pfp holding up my favorite pubs of 2025, so i extra hope to be able to read these with speed upon release! ♡ What are three books you want to read before the end of the year? ☆ Hot Wax by M.L. Rio ☆ The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri ☆ A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle, #6) by Nghi Vo okay, lets go with the other three books on my most anticipated 2025 publications post that i still have yet to read! i won’t lie to you though, early reviews for hot wax has made me be surprised if i keep pushing that one off until the very last minute! ♡ Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year? ☆  Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson let’s be real, brandy sandy always has a chance to make my favorite books of the year. especially when it’s a brand new anthology filled with cosmere stories! but this does come out december 9th, which is not ideal for me while i am trying to get all of my end of the year content prepped and ready, but you all know i will not be able to resist opening this up as soon as i get my hands on it! (bonus: i have had so many friends promise me that the buffalo hunter hunter will also be a new all-time favorite for me! but you all know that historical things scare me lol >.< but i really hope to try this, too!) ♡ Have you already started making reading plans for 2026? this feels really unlike me to say, but no >.< lol! i feel like i am going to have a very busy end of november / start of december, so my main reading priority is just to read all the things that i feel like “i need to read” before the end of the year! but i will always do an anticipated releases tbr, and i am very much adding 2026 publications to my tbr! i will also for sure get into the bullet journaling coziness come the end of the year, too! but i really am trying to manifest me getting through more of the realm of the elderlings in 2026, since i was really slacking this year! whew, okay, i think that’s everything! i really do always love doing this tag while i have a couple months left to prioritize what i truly need to read! i just can’t believe how quickly this fall season has already gone by for me! but i hope you’re having a happy holiday season, and please let me know what books you are priortizing before 2026 shows up! happy reading and i am always sending you so much love! 🍂☕️ goodreads | storygraph | substack | instagram | youtube ...

hi hi friends! as you are reading this, i am in california celebrating halloween a little early! but we can say we are celebrating jimin’s birthday talking about the 25 things i was able to read during the third quarter of 2025! 💜 i think the most notable reading experience of this quarter was that i finally started dungeon crawler carl, and you all were right, i did indeed fall in love with princess donut! but i also was able to read the most recent brandy sandy secret project, i fell in love with another fantasy murder mystery, and i read all of amazon’s brand new short story collection! truly is was a really good reading quarter for me, i just can’t believe we are now in the last quarter of 2025! but let’s get into everything current, before jumping ahead to end of the year things! 🍁🍂 Q3 STATISTICS reading spreadsheet created by brock + graph colors inspired by may ♡ okay, let’s get into some quick visual representation thoughts. first, omg that’s a lot of four stars and i am feeling very thankful! i fear that i am forever in my sff era ! i think 2025 is truly the year of tomes and reading all the 1k page books. i hope i am able to read a lot more audiobooks to finish out the year. i also hope to read at least one middle grade story, and maybe one more ya and one more nonfiction, too! i feel like some of these charts are a little skewed because of those six amazon short stories from netgalley, but i still love seeing all this data so very much! THREE FAVORITE READS OF Q3  (click title links for full reviews with detailed thoughts, feelings, and tw/cws!  ☆ The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1) by Antonia Hodgson ⤷ fantasy murder mystery with the most unique twists and turns and most endearing characters ☆ Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon ⤷ the critical role romantasy of my dreams given to me irl ☆ The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5) by Matt Dinniman ⤷ my favorite of the series all about uprising and fighting back, both for yourself and the people you love Q3 BOOK HAUL  ☆ not yet read: the enchanted greenhouse, hemlock & silver, the summer war, the isle in the silver sea, hot wax, this inevitable ruin ☆ already read and reviewed: a witch’s guide to magical innkeeping, isles of the emberdark, tusk love, katabasis this quarter really did treat me so kindly, both in reading and my nonreading life, and i am so very thankful. my goal for the next quarter is to read some shorter books and maybe make it easy on myself to hit 100 books come the end of the year! but thank you so much for reading this quarterly update, and i hope you’re having a gentle halloween season, and i am always sending you all so much love, and wishing you the happiest of reading! ❤ ♡ 2025 monthly wrap ups: jan | feb | march | april | may | june | july | august | september goodreads | storygraph | substack | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon | wishlist

oh hello, friends! i hope you’re doing well, and getting ready to have a happy halloween season! i have been packing for california all day, where i am going to start my halloween festivities with the one and only oogie boogie! but i wanted to have this wrap up all ready to post before i left! so, let’s quickly do a recap and talk about the five books and six short stories i read in the month of september! 🎃 ✨ The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5) by Matt Dinniman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This was also something that trauma could do. It could make you blind, and it could open your eyes wider than they’d ever been, all at the same time.” i think this is my favorite installment yet. there was so much heart in this one, and i really was crying at so much within these pages. i am just becoming too attached to everyone at this point. but yeah, i really loved this one a lot and i am so happy i decided to ask for all these books for my birthday! okay, we are finally at the sixth level, which is the hunting grounds, where outsiders from the game are able to be hunters and… hunt the crawlers who are being forced to play the game. only eighty-five-thousand crawlers remain, and they have seventeen days to complete this new level. oh, and if you’re in the top fifty for favorite crawlers, you will be able to attend a masquerade at the very end. and yes, it is meant to feel a little menacing, especially when you add the word “butcher” to the front of masquerade in the title. as i have been saying, one of my favorite aspects of this series is seeing what the new dungeon floor looks like! and the sixth level is just a fantasy lover’s dream. (oh, and dinosaurs! i’m not a dino girl myself, but i do think this will be appealing for a lot of other readers!) i also extra loved seeing donut and carl pick specialties on this floor, and i will always love a good performance check! also, because of the insane ending to the previous book, we also get to see carl get an attorney, which i really did love. i just love seeing more and more ex-crawlers, and just people “working” for the people in charge, in this universe and learning more and more backstory on their histories. i really do think the author is saying a lot in the book about tyrannical government systems that thrive on keeping the oppressed feeling isolated in a game that is set up for them to lose. lastly, a new entry for people i am cheering so very loudly for: prepotente trigger + content warnings: slavery, mass killing and death, colonization, gore, violence, vomit, blood, battle, murder, explosions / bombings, fires, abandonment in past, talk of domestic abuse in past, child abuse in past / shitty parent in past, abandonment, drug use, talk of addiction, talk of withdrawal, drinking, smoking, ptsd, talk of loss of family, talk of car accident in past, drugging, one sentence mention of bulimia, needles (tattoo), animal death (dog), loss of a loved one / friend, grief, sacrificial suicide  ✨ The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1) by Antonia Hodgson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ARC provided by the publisher via Libro.fm “Brother – that is why I have chosen you. The throne is a burden to be carried, not a prize to be won?” i feel like i have been putting off this review, because i simply think this book is best read without knowing anything. i am going to attempt to be extra vague throughout this, because one of the reasons i truly loved it so much was all the unexpected twists, and insanely unique turns, that i just did not see coming. but i do think it is safe to say that my current reader self really is looking for fantasy murder mysteries. and the raven scholar is a favorite of 2025 for me. an empire is divided among groups of people who worship different animals and, in turn, have some of those animals attributes. (examples: ravens have a buffed intellect, foxes have a buffed stealth lol.) and every twentyish years, the empire hosts a tournament in which all of these houses have a representative to compete in different ch...

✰ the collection on amazon ✰ the collection on goodreads ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley hello friends! today i am bringing to you a little something different, perfectly timed for the halloween season! six brand new short stories that you might be able to read for free, depending on your amazon subscription! these are all standalones, all completely different from one another, but all  of these have a loose halloween night connection in their world, which was an added element that i did really love. so if you’re looking for some brand new tales of vampires, demons, angels, shifters, ghosts, and… well, a lot more vampires, then look no further! ♡ Hot for Slayer by Ali Hazelwood ★★★ i really adored the set up of this one. basically, ethel is a vampire, and lazlo is a vampire hunter that is tasked to kill ethel’s entire bloodline. they are both immortal, and have been playing a very flirty, but violent, game of cat and mouse for a thousand years! from berlin, to manhattan, we get glimpses of their chase, but their game is quickly put on hold when lazlo get amnesia and ethel chooses to take care of him. oh, and it is under the guise that she is an entomologist and he works in pest control lol. this was cute, i loved the set up, i just wish we got a little more with the ending. trigger + content warnings: violence, blood, childhood abandonment in past, kidnapping / captivity, amnesia, spider mention, loss of friend in past, self harm to get blood ♡ Falling by Christina Lauren ★★ cat is attending a halloween party in new york, with her soon to be ex-boyfriend. brigan is an immortal being, who was cursed by a sorceress many years ago, who is also attending this random party, and instantly is intrigued by cat in her lamb costume lol. and one break up text in a bathroom later, these two have what they think will be a one night stand. but then a game of five questions, with a lot of past trauma, and a couple twilight references happens, and maybe their paths were fated to cross again. this just was not my favorite, and i didn’t feel anything for the characters, and the set up was just very wild because you have such few pages in a short story. (if you’re looking for a sexy 120 page story that’s set at a halloween party, i really highly recommend the dare (losers, #0.5) by harley laroux! ) trigger + content warnings: mind control persuasion magic (that might not work 100% on the mc, idk >.

Goodreads | Amazon US | B&N | Blackwell’s | Bookshop “There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege.” this was my first ever litrpg, so maybe that’s why i adored this extra, but my nerdy little heart really felt like it was falling down a tunnel of complete love alongside carl and princess donut fighting for their lives. the very basic premise of this already very beloved story, is that on a very snowy january night, in seattle, carl finds himself barely dressed and chasing after this trophy winning cat outside, which inadvertently saves both of their lives, when aliens come and all structures are instantly flattened. tet, tunnels are opened up for the surviving humans, so they can enter the very first level of a universally televised broadcast where they will be forced to go deeper and deeper, becoming stronger and stronger, to maybe have a chance at survival after all. carl and his kitty companion go, alongside ten million others, where they will learn about what has been forced upon them while learning new skills and abilities on this first level. and most importantly, they have a time limit of when they must find and enter the next level, because once the time is up, the level will be squished like all the infrastructure of earth when these tunnels opened up! and maybe, just maybe, with the help of a tutorial guide, a talk show host, a pr assistant, some healthcare workers (and their residents), and other crawlers they meet along the way, they will be able to find the limited entrances, enter the second level, and learn even more about what this ai and alien gauntlet! this might be the most obvious thing i could possibly write in a review, but – if you like video games, you will most likely like this. this story is filled with getting achievements, opening loot boxes, setting up your ui, patch notes and hot fixes, grinding xp in so many different ways (with so many different mobs), forming raid groups to take down bigger bosses, cleaning up your inventory, learning and leveling up new skills, and so much more. but if you also like dnd? oh, i am even more certain you will like this book. because you add everything i just said, but also see where people’s skill points are going, and watching them learn spells and level them up, and trying to figure out while classes they are most likely going to be (maybe like barefoot fighter monk or a very charming bard), oh it is such a treat. i also just want to say that if you enjoyed the concept of traveling through different levels, and finding different towns and communities, and being introduced to new side characters, i really recommend senlin ascends. it is a completely different type of book, but one that has always stuck with me because of the unique concept, and this is the closest thing i’ve ever found to the same feeling. again, wildly different stories, and main characters, and even settings, but that spark of unique concept is only shared between only those two in my mind! and i will also say that the overarching themes, and what the story is saying, (of capitalism and corrupt governing systems) are also similar, if you’re feeling like you want to read that extra in 2025! but yeah, i have read a lot of books, searching for that feeling of senlin ascends (and of the baths), and i have never found it… until now! “Part of a collective mind intent upon destroying any semblance of scientific progress in the universe, the Krakaren is the only communal brain entity in the galaxy who actually gets stu. pider as time moves on. Consisting of multiple shrieking tenta-cles, members of the Krakaren cooperative spend their days birthing their disease-laden minions, creating and selling harmful products, attempting to debate scientific experts, and proselytizing to the weak minded, all in an attempt to … Well, nobody knows what the hell their end goal is.” overall, i just loved this completely and i am so happy i am going to have a new series to hopefully keep falling in love with. i also want to say that i liked some of the...