daughter of the chapel

A God,

A Goddess,

A gladiator/soldier,

Or a philosopher/scholar?

A Princess,

A Knight,

A Monk,

Or a Jester?

I started this month off with The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper. Set in Ancient Pompeii, it was an interesting story about women and their experience being slaves - specifically prostitutes. Some have accepted their fate in never becoming a freedwoman, and some will stop at nothing to escape. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den... Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others. But Amara's spirit is far from broken. By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learned that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her? Set in Pompeii's lupanar, The Wolf Den reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked.

I gave this book 3 stars. Here's a clip of my review:

"A great story with a satisfying, although sad, ending."

Next I finished the third installment in The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater called Blue Lily, Lily Blue. I am in love with this series and think Stiefvater is a genius. It is so easy to just love this friend group. Here's the GoodReads blurb (don't read if you haven't read the first one):

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost. Friends can betray. Mothers can disappear. Visions can mislead. Certainties can unravel.

On the left is the series in its entirety if you were curious. On the right is the third book, the one I read. I rated this 4.5 stars. Here's a piece of my own reivew:

"I LOVED this book. My fave so far out of the ones I've read. [...] And now that they've figured out a lot of the basic stuff of this magic with Glendower, I felt like stuff was really getting moving."

At this point, I decided to make A Wheel of Shame for my physical TBR. If you aren't on TikTok and haven't seen this trend, it's where you count up all the physical books you have on your shelves that you haven't read and compile them together on an online picker wheel. It's supposed to remove the burden of deciding what to read yourself while also providing a fun and engaging way to tackle the books you already have. A lot of people also add a Book Buying Ban on top of this challenge to really work on hacking away at their physical TBR. I tried doing this too, but I bought 2 books the other day 😳. Don't tell anyone.

The first book my Wheel ended up choosing was Turtles All The Way Down by John Green - a reread for me as I read it back in high school (which was over 5 years ago) but I had finally purchased my own copy and wanted to experience it again. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

An author with OCD writing a story about a girl with OCD, it's incredibly enlightening and raw. Loved it (again). Rated it 4 stars. Here's a piece of my review:

"Reading about this at my age now, knowing more about OCD and now knowing a close friend who has it (and figuring out John Green himself has it some time between when I read the book for the first time and now) even though I can never fully understand it, I empathize with that feeling of being out of control of the reigns with the self."

Next, the Wheel chose for me another John Green book! Which was a pleasant surprise. An Abundance of Katherines was actually the only John Green book I didn't read in high school because it was always checked out at my school library. A friend very recently gifted me her copy, and so I was excited to finally have an opportunity to open it up. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

If Maggie Stiefvater is the queen of YA, I'd say John Green is the king. After reading the previous book that came out in 2017, reading this one - which was published in 2006 - it was interesting being able to compare his writing from over 10 years ago to now. I rated this 4 stars. Here's a piece of my own blurb:

"John Green does it again. Nostalgia, cringe, and rom-com philosophy all wrapped up into a short and sweet book."

I think the Wheel got a clue of my love for Nosferatu (peep the pfp) as it chose for me the sapphic version: Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. I think more people know this now, but for a while everyone thought that Stoker's Dracula was the start of the "vampire lit" trend (a trend that's lasted for over a century lol) but it was actually this book that started it. Of course, no one wanted to acknowledge that since it was not only gay but girl-gay - god forbid. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day… Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.

This is what my copy looks like. I rated this 3.5 stars. Here's a piece of my review:

"A short and sweet classic that not only had vampires but was also very much wlw is a win in my book!"

A bittersweet end we meet with the final installment of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. Bitter, because I don't want it to end. Sweet, because I finally get to know the last bit of the story! It's called The Raven King, and this is the GoodReads blurb (don't read if you haven't read the first book):

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

My absolute favorite book of the series - it really just kept getting better. I rated it 5 stars. Here's a piece of my blurb:

"At this point in the books, their relationships with each other are well-established and their familiarity with the magic and dream world is also well-established, so this book basically was a perfect amalgamation of a more complex puzzle for them to solve while having the dynamic of the best found family situation I've ever read before."

The Wheel chose Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for me to read next. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

"After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind."

I really don't like people on covers but at least some of her face is covered. Anyway, I rated this 4.5 stars - I really enjoyed this! Here's. a piece of my review:

"I loved Noemì's character and I also really liked Francis."

After that, I got told to read Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. My sister recommended it to me knowing how much I love astrology because there are a lot of astrology references in here. Which, once I started reading, I was surprised not only how accurate, but how specific the references were. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . . A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

I rated this 3.5 stars. Here's a clip from my own review:

"Not only is it rare for main characters to be older women, but it's even rarer for her to live in the isolated plateau of a frozen Polish town."

The first book I finished in May was Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo. A great story of flamenco dancing, immigrants in the U.S., and disability studies. Here's the blurb from GoodReads:

The seductive world of flamenco forms the backdrop for a classic tale of independence found, lost, and reclaimed. Like Bizet's legendary gypsy, Carmen "La Coja" (The Cripple) Santos is hilarious, passionate, triumphant, and mesmerizing.  A renowned flamenco dancer in Chicago despite the legacy of childhood polio, Carmen has long enjoyed an affair with Agustín, the married director of her troupe--a romance that's now growing stale. When she begins a new, passionate liaison with Manolo, Agustín's grandson and a dancer of natural genius, an angry rivalry is sparked. Carmen finally makes her way back to happiness in this funny, fiery story that's equal parts soap opera, tragicomedy, and rhapsody.

I ended up rating this 3.5 stars. Here's a cut from my review if you were curious:

"I like how none of the characters in the book are necessarily good people (especially the men), but I think the drama of that is part of the culture of flamenco, as the dance itself is dramatic and sensual in many ways - so why shouldn't their lives be too?"

Into the world of gothic architecture, dark academia, and mysterious illnesses, Nocticadia by Keri Lake was my next read. As with the [only] other dark academia, "gothic" romance book I've read - Gothikana by ru Nyx - I was pretty underwhelmed. It was definitely longer than Gothikana, so the story was more flushed out, but imo, there still wasn't enough of the gothic bit of its selling point. Here's a blurb about it from GoodReads:

After watching my mother succumb to a mysterious illness, I promised myself two things. I’d find the cure for what ravaged her. And leave the godforsaken city where she abandoned me. Four years later, I receive an acceptance letter from Dracadia University, one of the oldest, most prestigious schools in the country. Nestled on a secluded island off the coast of Maine, it’s rumored to be haunted by the souls of the mental patients exiled there centuries before. Those whose bones are said to make up the island’s white sandy shores. And restless ghosts aren’t even its most daunting peculiarity. Devryck Bramwell, known on campus as Doctor Death, is a brilliant pathologist in charge of the midnight lab. He’s also my devastatingly handsome professor, who seems to loathe tenacious first-years, like me. Except, his dark and enigmatic gaze tells me all the ways he’d devour me if given the chance, and his stolen kisses burn my lips with forbidden jealousy. I crave his authority. He aches for redemption. Together, we’re toxic. Delicious fodder for the prying eyes hellbent on exhuming the rotted skeletons of our pasts. For the dead have much to teach, and it’s only a matter of time before Dracadia’s most depraved secret is resurrected.

I ended up rating this 3 stars - low key I think the end really made me not like it completely. Here's a clip of my review:

"I liked the more gory aspects to this story too and the detail that went into the parasite storyline. That was pretty cool. I think I enjoyed that because it leaned a bit more into the gothic horror aspect rather than strictly staying in the dark academia lane."

Now we're moving on to the Vietnam War! 🤪 I read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I was really into the Cold War in high school and this was part of that era of politics, so this was like a nod to my little history nerd self. An incredibly enlightening story not necessarily about the international politics of the war, but rather what the experience was like and what it means to be a [unwillingly] drafted soldier. Here's a blurb from GoodReads:

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing.

I ended up rating this 3 stars. Here's a piece of my review:

"I really liked the way O'Brien wrote this story, I liked the whole idea of story-truths and reality-truths being different but somehow the story ones are truer. I like how he talks about death and how a coldness and darkness sits with you after you've seen so much of it and dealt with pain yourself."

My next book is a YA novel called Wilder Girls by Rory Power. It reminded me a lot of The Last of Us (which I've never seen or played so don't come for me if this is wrong) because of the disease that's infected them and has changed their bodies physically and slowly takes over them entirely. It's also gay! Haha, I knew I could get your attention with that! Here's a GoodReads blurb:

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her. It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

I ended up rating it 3 stars. Here's a bit of my review:

"I enjoyed how the virus was described as so gory and violent, I think it made it so much more tangible in my mind and also that much more a metaphor for puberty, as it starts when the girls are supposed to get their first period, and then every year (like a birthday) it mutates and becomes something more, and it's extremely painful for them."

Next I started to read a delectably trashy romance series called Madison Kate by Tate James. From first to last the books go: Hate, Liar, Fake, then Kate (there's also Vault but it's a novella). It was so so easy to just fly through the pages of the first book. It's tea as FUCK. Here's a blurb about it from GoodReads:

“Madison Kate Danvers was murdered tonight.” Those words changed my life, and not for the better. They were wrong, of course. I wasn’t dead. But I was set up. After being charged with a string of offences--and made an example of by my political minded father--I’m eventually released back into Shadow Grove with one thing on my mind. Hate. Someone is going to pay for derailing my carefully laid out future. Someone is going to catch the full force of my hate. How very convenient that someone just moved into the bedroom down the hall from me. Archer D’Ath and his boys messed with the wrong chick and they’re about to learn just how cold Madison Kate’s hate can run.

On the left is the series in its entirety if you were curious. On the right is the first book, the one I read. I ate it up so bad, I rated it 4 stars. Here's a quick bit from my review:

"She [my friend that recommended it to me] even prefaced that it was going to be a pivotal moment for me as a woman and what can I say? She was right."

On a complete 180º, I finished Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises after that. A classic in regard to his earlier works and in litfic in general. Here's a blurb from GoodReads:

The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta) is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

I ended up rating this book 3 stars. Here's a piece of my own blurb:

"On the cover of the book, a review says something like 'Hemingway's writing is both fine and restrained' and I think that's a great way of putting it. He writes well - obviously - but it still somehow feels like he's leaving things out even when he spends over a paragraph describing the rolling plains where they went fishing."

Next was For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. Originally advertised to me as a romance, I was fully expecting a monster romance type vibe but got a YA novel instead. Don't get me wrong, I love YA. I just wasn't expecting it. So I think my review ended up being heavily influenced by that disappointment even as I tried to bite it back. Because I did enjoy it! I was just trying to have a mood-read moment and was left hungry. Anyway, here's the GoodReads blurb:

The first daughter is for the Throne. The second daughter is for the Wolf. As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods. Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again. But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole.

If you've read The Northwind by Alexandra Warwick or A Soul to Keep by Opal Reyne, I think you'll find this lacking in the same way I did. This was scarily similar to those two books in different ways and yet it was incredibly dissatisfying to me even though I thoroughly enjoyed those other two books. I ended up rating it 3 stars. Here's a piece of my own review:

"If you're looking for YA, this is a good book. However, if you're looking for fantasy and/or romance, there are other books with this same plot that do it way better imo. I did really like the Beauty and the BeastxLittle Red Riding Hood Thing going on though."

Back on my shit, I picked up the next book in the Madison Kate series which is Liar by Tate James. Of course, I ate it tf up. By now, I noticed a pattern in which there's a huge fucking cliffhanger at the end of every book that makes you want to immediately open the next one. Here's the GoodReads blurb: (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST ONE)

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” The words scrawled on the back of my newest stalker mail makes my blood run cold. I have no idea if it's the lie I know, or one that I don't. Since arriving back into Shadow Grove, I've been stalked, tormented, chased and almost killed. I've been lied to, repeatedly, by people I was growing to trust. Liar. That word haunts me. Someone knows more about my life than I do. Someone is taunting me with answers and teasing me with secrets. Am I desperate enough to fall for more deception? Archer and his boys made a huge mistake when they lied to me. They thought they could play me but they're about to learn that they've met their match. No one stabs Madison Kate and gets away with it.

I rated it 4 stars. I can't put even part of my review on here because it entirely contains spoliers lol.

Next I read, what I can confidently say, is definitely in my top 3 books of 2025. Circe by Madeline Miller was a book I didn't realize I needed to read out the womb. I loved it to DEATH. I read Song of Achilles (also by her) and I don't think Circe has nearly as much hype as that book. Here is the GoodReads blurb:

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

I rated this 5 stars. Here's a piece of my review:

"She was not always the most likeable, but I think she was always honest with herself which is something that I found did make her all the more likeable in the end, and it was also really refreshing to read. Miller will never disappoint, it's just in her vocab."

Aaaand then I read the third book in the Madison Kate series - I'm telling you they reel you in, this shit is tea asf- called Fake by Tate James. Here's the GoodReads blurb: (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST ONE)

“You’ll always be mine.” The latest taunt from my stalker reminded me I was nothing more than a possession to my father, to the Reapers, to Archer D’Ath. Even to Kody and Steele. Princess Danvers—the prize. His wife. Archer D’Ath’s wife. I hate them. They lied to me. Over and over again. I knew they were lying, and I hate myself for letting it happen. For believing in the fake relationships I want so desperately to be real. Fake. It’s all fucking fake. My stalker won’t let me go. None of them will. Archer and his boys think they control me. My stalker wants to possess me. I’m not an idiot, I know my newest allies are using me too. That’s fine. I’ll use all of them. I’ll use them to take back what’s mine. My life. My freedom. My name. No one owns Madison Kate Danvers.

I rated this 4 stars. Again, can't share even a little bit of my review because it's all spoilers!

My last book for the month was Praise by Sara Cate. Definitely a bit of different read for me - I don't usually read Dom/Sub but the characters were enjoyable enough that it didn't feel so intrusive to read about. Here's the GoodReads blurb:

He calls me perfect. His flawless pet. His good girl. Broken down and wounded by my emotionally neglectful ex, I wanted someone to tell me I was good enough. Then, I stumbled into a new job with a boss who brings me to my knees—literally. He has me do things a real secretary would never do. Emerson Grant tells me I’m more than just good enough. I’m worthy of his praise. There are a million reasons why I should stay away. The owner of the Salacious Players’ Club is not just my new boss, he’s twice my age. And my ex-boyfriend’s father. With him, I am treasured. I am adored. I am his. I’m a good girl, but I’m falling for the wrong man. Emerson Grant knows what he wants— And he wants me. So how far will I go to hear his approval?

Acknowledging that it's an acquired taste that I'm not sure I've achieved after reading this, I gave it 3.5 stars. Here's a piece of my review:

"At first, it reminded me too much of the crazy dom/sub dynamics of stupid old Wattpad fic, but it became more enjoyable the longer I read because they actually talked things out like real adults!! Very much unlike those cringe fics."