#earc

Ok! Pre-orders for A Study on Magic and Crystals is up! If you wanna meet Talita, Solis and Marcela while they go on a roadtrip and explore magic and their feelings for each other, come along! The book is out on October 24th! Preorder link: https://maybarros.com.br/a-study-on-magic-and-crystals/

And if you want to read it ~now~, I have eARCs! Just fill out the form!

-Read my review at Hobbiesover.Coffee

SO, since book 1 in that series is FREE to download, you may wish to go grab that and give it a read before the eARCs are available.

You can get Secondhand Origin Stories right here. if you like late YA books that are queer, full of family drama (that is mostly not about queerness), enjoy superhero stories that let things get domestic and interpersonally messy, want scifi that cares deeply about trauma, or are ok with your cyberpunk being more philosophy and theme than aesthetic.

Please check it out!

Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi | Book 3 of 2025

I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, and Inklore for providing me with copy.

While I did enjoy this book, and will be reading the third book when it comes out, I did have a few issues with it. Some of the pacing felt quite off, particularly the intimate scenes. There were three scenes, all relatively mild to me (think mostly fade to black/some on page); but each one felt ill timed. All three came after something big and distressing had happened, or was supposed to happen. I actually found myself trying to read them as quickly as possible so I could get back to the rest of the story. I also wish that it had been a longer book. Faebound was well over 300 pages, and this sat at just under 300 (at least on the eARC). I feel like there could have been a lot more explanation to certain things or things could have just been fleshed out a bit more. All of that being said, I am curious to see where book three takes us. Now, all of that aside, I did enjoy the story!

You begin by following Yeeran back to the Waning Tribe where she hopes to deliver news that will help the fae, elves, and the Forever War. She comes across our new, slightly mysterious, character, Alder, one of the Nomads (wandering elves) who may be who they've been looking for all along. Lettle and Golan end up topside, searching for secrets that may uncover the answers to the curse. Rayan and Furi try to search out the threat that has infiltrated the royal court, as well as a deep betrayal. Mind you, all of this is going on while trying to navigate their own romantic relationships, new places in court, and their relationship with the Lightless.

I personally really enjoy the queer normativity of this world. There's even a character guide in the back providing pronouns and little blurbs about each person.

Disclaimer: this is an unsponsored review of an eARC provided by NetGalley.

Red string of fate. Reincarnation. Two souls deeply and passionately in love, yearning for each other throughout time and history.

I've always appreciated a story of reincarnation where a person retains their memories from their previous and past lives, and this is no exception.

Read recently: How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kirsten Perrin, read by Jaye Jacobs and Alexandra Dowling

What I was looking for: A funny, cozy mystery.

What I liked: I liked that the main character was actually genre savy and not stupid. She noticed the things I noticed too and often also remarked on them, asked questions, followed up. I like it when they are not stupid or totally unobservant just to get them in trouble. The parallel stories, present and past, worked well together.

What I did not like: For one, the characters were not particularly deep or difficult. The developer, the rich snob, the strange rich kid, the steadfast lawyer. You do not need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out these characters.

This very likely can be attributed to the format, i.e. audiobook but there were just so many characters and family members/descendants of important characters from the past, I really had trouble keeping them straight (which removed a little drama from the reveal because I was confused).

Narrator: I liked the narration. It was a good decision choosing two different narrators for the two timelines.

Do you want to read a cool new book FOR FREE???? Do you like falling in love with characters that are kinda just messes and then screaming about it on social media? Do you like reading books that will hurt you?

THEN GETTING AN ARC OF A SEARING FAITH IS JUST FOR YOU!!!! A Searing Faith is:

epic dark fantasy with a dash of steampunk

the beginning of a found family

a cast full of queer characters

a mystery to be uncovered

a government that’s trying its hardest to pretend everything is just peachy

a dog!!! AND a fox that seems to understand more than it should ???

You can find it on Booksprout and if you don’t have that, you can also get yourself a copy through Bookfunnel !

I finished Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban and, no spoilers, but this book was everything! I absolutely love the hijinks Gwen and Beth come up with to get their parents together so they don't have to get married themselves. The parent trapping was ✨️immaculate✨️ and definitely an underrated trope. And getting dual POV made this so much more enjoyable!

Mixing my love of historical romance, queer discovery stories, and badass ladies, this was an absolute joy of a book.

The cast of characters was also great. Aside from the main duo, Albie was a stand-out to me. Same with Meredith. They were both so accepting of Gwen and Beth and probably realized they had a thing for each other before the girls did.