okay, you were all right - this was an amazing volume one and i absolutely cannot wait to continue on with this story! i really love this, and maomao okay, you were all right - this was an amazing volume one and i absolutely cannot wait to continue on with this story! i really love this, and maomao is such an amazing protagonist. i can’t wait to read more about her and her adventures!
in this volume one, we are introduced to our main character, maomao, who was kidnapped and sold to the empire, and is now a maidservant in the inner court. but she soon gets a promotion when her apothecary talents are discovered, and her aid is needed in solving the mystery of the deaths of the heirs born from the consorts in the inner palace. and then… she becomes a food taster and starts to help with more apothecary needs - from chocolate making to solving another mystery of a ghost dancing atop the palace!
trigger + content warnings: kidnapping, talk of child death, poisoning
the honey witch is about a girl who is about to take up her grandmother’s legacy being, you guessed it, thARC provided by Orbit - thank you so much !!
the honey witch is about a girl who is about to take up her grandmother’s legacy being, you guessed it, the next honey witch on her island. every eldest daughter in her family had the potential to be a witch, if they so do choose it. we follow our main character (and the eldest daughter), marigold, as she is healing and figuring out what she wants her life to look like, versus the life that society has always told her life should look like. and we are alongside marigold as she is learning her new potion making abilities, while also trying to prove to someone that witchcraft is very real.
this is a really hard book to rate and talk about, because i just never felt connected to the story itself, or the characters, or anything going on with the plot, but i can also recognize that this book had a lot of good in it, that did really mean a lot to me. i mean, first off, sapphic cottagecore vibes, with a queer beekeeper who is learning things from spellbooks her grandmother left her, who is also healing from her past and trying to have a healthy relationship with her friends and family in the present. like, a lot of good! a lot of stuff i will always recommend to you guys!! I just wish i could have connected more with the actual story and plot and not just the themes and concepts.
i also really loved the queer representation in this book, and even though no titles are actually given, i personally feel like the representation of bi, pan, and lesbian was really beautifully done. also, there is a tattoo scene in this book that is truly one of the hottest things i’ve ever read in my entire life. ahhh, friends - i recommend this book just because i want it to succeed and i want more stories from sydney j. shields, and more chances to fall in love with her books completely.
cws from the author at the start of this book: Tattooing/Needles, Burns, Blood/Injuries, Sex, House fire, Bee stings, Loss of a grandparent, Death/Grief, Discussions of infertility, A woman seeks aid of the honey witch for treatment of her miscarriage
other tw/cw i wrote down: mention and talk of abusive and predatory relationship in past, caretaking for a loved one, loss of parents in past, abandonment, fire, blood, vomit
“There is a fine line between a saint and a witch, and I wonder if you are prepared to walk it.”
i really enjoyed this one and it really reminded me of how much i just adore leigh’s prose and style of writing. But this story has a lot of heart, and a lot of tragedy, and you can really tell leigh put a lot of her soul in this story. this book takes place in madrid, during spain’s golden age - where spain colonized, forced labor, forced religious oppression, and forced cultural assimilation (i say this as a filipino, while also recognizing maybe this hit a little bit harder because of my family). but this is also a historical fantasy about three women and an immortal, all cursed in their own ways, all trying to survive in this world that constantly tries to silence them.
➛ Valentina - forced to ask her husband for permission to even leave her house, while also trying to present a fake front of wealth to the upper class society, despite not having much wealth anymore. Valentina is very desperate to gain some kind of agency, and attention from the upper class, and sees a way to do both when she notices a housemaid able to perform magic. but gaining the attention of more powerful eyes might not be a good thing for anyone.
➛ Luzia - works for valentina as a housemaid, and is able to perform magic because of her jewish ancestry she has always been forced to keep secret from the world. but because of valentina, her secret has now spread, and she soon has a tournament to win, for a wealthy patron who wants to gain the attention of the king, who wants to keep winning his wars. luzia is forced to walk the line of performing magic that will please, but not magic that will scare her oppressors forcing her to perform said magic.
➛ Santángel - the immortal (points you to title) who is tasked with helping train luzia to win the competition, but who also has a lot of secrets and mystery from his own past, that keeps haunting him lifetime after lifetime.
➛ Hualit - luzia’s aunt, whose story really intrigued me because she has lived her life doing everything she thinks was needed to survive. i would say that her storyline is the smallest of the four, but she impacted me so much that she needed her own bullet point!
and i really love all four of these very complex characters, very deeply! but i think that’s all i want to say. the journey of this book is what i enjoyed the most, and i think you will too, if you pick it up and give it a try! i saw people say that it had a slow start for them, but i promise you that i was completely enthralled from that bread to the very last page. i just really enjoyed this, and no one, and i mean no one, writes yearning and angst like leigh bardugo. and to write something so beautiful in a world (and real history) that is so devastating, is also a feat of magic in and of itself.
trigger + content warnings: loss of parents in past, loss of a loved one, suicide, antisemitism, colonization, vomit, abuse, spiders, scorpions, sexual assault (forced touching), sexual assault insinuation, talk of torture, torture (including waterboarding), forced nudity, blood, fire, abandonment, blood, murder, grief, fore, violence, slavery, animal death, animal cruelty (squirrel), colonialism, misogyny, drugging, talk of infertility
this second installment is set in 1910 and obviously still follows emily wilde, who this time is focusing her research on creating a map that will track the nexuses that connect all the fae realms (and their doors) to our world. and maybe, just maybe, there is a special emphasis on a fae prince we know and love. but anyways, she is also bringing along wendell bambleby again for this adventure, but also her young niece who also has a passion for the fae and the different research involving them. yet this time, the stakes feel much higher even if the fate of these stakes rely a lot on locating a magical cat behind these fae doors. (again, even if this is a cozy set up and setting, this does deal with some darker themes showing the dark faery side of things!)
for some reason, i just didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first. the format of journal entries is still perfect for me, i love these characters so much, and we even got winter fox faes in this! i mean… so so so much for me and my reading wheelhouse to love! but i guess (while trying to not being spoilery here) i really didn’t like not seeing as much wendell in this one (or maybe in the way… i would have preferred to see him… again, no spoilers is hard but hopefully you feel me if you’ve read this!) but overall, i still had a fun time with this one and loved being back with these characters and exploring some new worlds.
trigger + content warnings: missing person, talk of animals/pets aging, poison, illness/sick partner,, brief mention of loss of parents in past, talk of loss of friends in past, grief, abusive step parent, mention of infidelity (not mcs), blood, gore, violence, spiders
“Her conviction, born of long days and longer nights, was that if the world contained magic at all, then it could not also contain their war.”
the warm hands of ghosts is a story set during world war 1, following a combat nurse who has recently returned home after the hospital she was working at was bombed. now, back in halifax canada, another explosion has happened and all she has left is her brother, who is still in german occupied france fighting in the forbidden zone. but when a package reaches her with some of his items and a note saying he is missing, she knows she must get back to france and see if she can find out any information about the only person she has left in this world. And a beautiful story, within two stories, is crafted about love, faith, and sacrifice as we switch perspective of these two siblings encountering a force this world has always known. (and the speculative element involving a magical inn that is described as a “faerie revels that end at sunrise”? yeah, 11/10 for me and my reading wheelhouse.)
i know a lot of you were really curious about my thoughts on this book, because the winternight trilogy is one of my favorite stories, and it really does mean a great deal to me. comparing that to this book feels so impossible, because the stories are so vastly differently, but i still really enjoyed this book and was completely swept away by katherine arden’s prose and storycrafting and heart.
i am just not the biggest historical reader, and i am also not the biggest fan of reading war stories, but i knew if anyone could make me enjoy a story with a backdrop like this, it would be katherine arden. but i did find myself very much enjoying laura’s pov of traveling and healing and discovering what was going on way more than freddies trapped within this war pov (which seems to be a very not popular opinion according to early reviews)! but even despite this book being very catered not to my tastes, there is just something so magical about katherine’s writing, and ability to tell a story. and the way she handled the different evils in this book was really perfect in my opinion. plus, you all know i love a good big sister and little brother story always!
i really don’t want to give away too much of the plot, because it really is cool to discover everything right alongside laura and freddie, but my favorite part of this book is actually the title. just this idea sparking that our own hands can become unusable because of the brutal acts of men (and how women are trying to heal from many of those acts against all odds), and how we can be having our hands guided by ghosts (some ghosts, some angels, some… a little bit of dark entities) was just really thought provoking and so very profound to me. very very galaxy brain. also the theme of how it is easier to blame one person, one thing, rather than a completely broken system that needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. i know this is a world war 1 story, but it feels extra heartbreaking how much of this felt so very relevant in 2024. maybe we need our hands guided a lot more by ghosts and not leaders who still don’t want to view human lives equally 100 years later.
“It was so much easier to hate a man than a system: vast, inhuman, bloodstained.”
this book also puts a very heavy emphasis on hope and how important it is to have a north star to keep that hope alive, keep you having faith, making it easier for you to believe in something and maybe, in turn, believe in yourself. This book really showcases that in a lot of ways - through anger, though sacrifice, though a never waning belief of hope back in that very same person. And also shows the beauty of realizing that you are able to hope in something new, which can also be a safe harbor when the world feels unnavigable by yourself.
also this book has a very big central theme of pairings within the characters. This old and new world that so many of these characters fall into and you can see them having a harder or easier time depending on what way they fall. i feel we (americans) are taught around 8th grade the literary juxtaposition of the 20s and of old and new with gatsby (and at such an annoying length), but this really made me think that maybe this was a heightened view that people were really discussing and feeling during and after the great war (pre jazz era/roaring twenties… listen, i am an sff reader and reviewer not a historical one hahaha but this really was thought provoking for me). but i just really love the element of pairings and how everyone kind of has a co-something counterpart within this story as well. i enjoy it as a reader and also as a type a virgo.
okay i think i am finally able to let you in on the secret reading of this book (i can’t even believe i am about to type this!) I was able to have the opportunity to buddy read this with katherine arden (and a bunch of amazing booksellers and book content creators!) and the amount of research and respect and heart that she put into this novel is so very felt, but i really was lucky enough to experience that so much deeper. i was speechless at how much she knew and how much she dug deeper to learn so many personal stories of families during this time. it allowed me to have an even deeper level of empathy and just taught me so much in regard to understanding what life was really like during this time period all around the world.
i also want to let you know because this was such a magical experience for me, there could potentially be some bias going on, or simply that i just read this book with a different lens compared to if i read it all by myself. You know, it feels a little fated to even write this because the reason i picked up the bear and the nightingale in 2017 was because it was gifted to me by the goodreads staff, which they all wrote sweet things in, and it is forever one of my favorite books in my collection. so maybe i am just destined to have really unique reading experiences with katherin arden.
overall, this was a really heartfelt story and an entire experience that meant a lot to me. it was a true honor reading this, and laura is a character who will stay in my heart forever. i absolutely am already begging for whatever katherine arden does next and this book really helped solidify her as a favorite author of all time.
trigger + content warnings: the whole setting being world war 1, a constant talk and imagery of war, halifax harbor explosion, battle of passchendaele mentions, mentions of chemical gassing warfare, prisoner of war, death, murder, gun violence, so many hospital settings, violence, gore, blood, blood transfusions, needles, surgery, talk of medical conditions and illness constantly, missing loved one, a lot of talk of loss of loved ones (including parents, children, partners, friends), captivity, claustrophobic scenes, extreme ptsd, extreme nightmares, smoking and drinking, crowd crush scene, talk of suicide, suicide ideation.
“I rarely share this part of my life with others, but I want to tell it to you now. A piece of armor, because I trust you. A glint of falling steel
“I rarely share this part of my life with others, but I want to tell it to you now. A piece of armor, because I trust you. A glint of falling steel, because I feel safe with you.”
i really wanted to read this one, because so many of you were recommending it to me! and i ended up reading this in two sittings, because i could not put it down. the writing is beyond beautiful and i feel the story is paced in a way that just makes it so compulsively readable! to write a book about beautiful writing you have to be able to write beautifully and rebecca ross truly delivered on that front. there is a good portion of this book where we see the two main characters writing letters back and forth to each other on their typewriters and some of the things Iris and Roman would write really would make me weep. i loved the first half of this book completely, and i really loved the middle with attie and marisol, but the reason i am giving this four stars is because the more we got to see this magical war of soldiers fighting for gods, the more i wanted to know about the actual war going on, and i still feel so clueless about so much. i feel like the next book will help fill in a lot of the things we didn’t get from this one (oh my god, that ending), but i did close this book maybe not as in love as i was opening it! but i still had a good time with this book, and I really think Iris is a favorite character of 2023 for me.
trigger + content warnings: war, war zones, battle, bombings, death, injury, medical treatments, needle mention, blood, gore, violence, anxiety, panic attacks, ptsd, alcoholism, vomit, loss of a loved one, loss of a parent, loss of a sibling, loss of a loved one in past, drowning, grief, depression, abandonment, insomnia mention
i am such a huge hafsah faizal fan, and i truly will anticipate and read everything they ever choose to create. their stories are always filled with si am such a huge hafsah faizal fan, and i truly will anticipate and read everything they ever choose to create. their stories are always filled with so much heart and i think i will forever just become so obsessed with the characters they write. and the main character of this book, arthie, was maybe the easiest to love yet.
arthie runs a bloodhouse, well, a tearoom during the day, but a bloodhouse at night - both safe spaces for her crew. because in this historical london, vampires and known and feared, especially because twenty years ago a vampire killer was never found. but when the tearoom is threatened, arthie must set out to find secrets and gather her crew (both old and new) for a heist that could maybe change everything.
and that mini synopsis sounds amazing, right? but this is also a story about colonialism and living in the country that colonized your family. this book also heavily talks about the difference between first and second (or 0 and 1) generation immigrants and how they view the world and their colonizers. this also deeply discusses racism and colorism and the difference of being biracial and/or being more white passing (and how those first visual impressions from people/oppressors can offer very different outcomes in every single situation). arthie is a very angry character, and that might not work for everyone, but the girls who get it are going to get it and are going to fall very quickly in love with her, and just want to protect her from a historical world that feels a lot like 2024 at times. also, there are two other povs as well, even though i just accidentally wrote up a paragraph on arthie. but i promise jin and flick (and laith and matteo) are amazing as well!
also, this central setting/backdrop being a teahouse? with tea and comfort and safety and gathering and community? that's a very heartfelt galaxy brain setting, if i do say so myself. this book really just had so much to easily feel very deeply and fall in love with.
it does have a cliffhanger ending though, which i am still screaming about, but i am also counting the days until i can get my hands on book two. this book actually has a lot of twists and turns that i did not see coming, which was very unexpected, but made the reading experience even more fun. overall, i really recommend this one and truly can’t wait to see what hafsah faizal does next.
trigger + content warnings: blood, violence, gore, racism, colorism, kidnapping in past, colonization, colonialism, fire, explosions, loss of family in past, grief, human trafficking, drugging, abusive parents, forced military / soldiers
i really enjoyed this novella, and sequel to what moves the dead that i was very much not expecting to ever have! we once again follow alex, going to a somewhat isolated hunting lodge in galician that they inherited, even if they are just longing to be back in paris where the noise is a comfort and the silence isn’t haunting. alex is also with angus, miss potter, and the best horse (hod), and when they get to the lodge, no one is there, not even the caretaker who has been in alex’s life forever. and a mystery ensues, filled with maybe scary ghosts and haunted dreams and hard memories and hot cups of tea. i really had a good time with this one and i hope t kingfisher continues to give us more of alex and adventures in this world!
trigger + content warnings: anxiety, chronic health condition (tinnitus), ptsd, medical procedure imagery, fungus imagery, talk of war and battle and death in past, loss of a friend, depression, nightmares, loss of parent in past, a lot of sickness that hinder breathing and involves the lungs (i do think this could be very triggering for covid related trauma, so please use caution), blood, talk of pneumonia, talk of tuberculous, animal gore / body horror, and just overall this is a dark story with dark themes
This is a gorgeous and heartfelt story, set in historical chicago, where we follow a warlock detective tr
“I would do anything for you, and I did.”
This is a gorgeous and heartfelt story, set in historical chicago, where we follow a warlock detective trying to capture a serial killer. This book also just had a lot of things that really worked for me, as a reader. It focuses on a sapphic romance throughout, we get to see the main character’s unconditional love for her little brother constantly, and we get to try to solve a mystery with the ritual killer's name being white city vampire but it involving angels and demons. All really cool and beloved things in my heart and personal taste buzzword wheelhouse!
But this is also a book about sacrifice and love and hope and how those three things can take so many different shapes, yet sometimes they look the very same. I highly recommend this one and pray it will be the first book in a series.
trigger + content warnings: a lot of mentions of homophobia, mention of conversion therapy, institutionalization, talk of loss of a loved one, mention of a car accident involving death, abduction, murder, gore, ritual killings, human sacrifice, a lot of blood depictions, self harm for blood for magic, possession, misogyny, brief mention of throwing up, gun violence involving cops, a lot of smoking + alcohol consumption.
“Please don’t ever tell Jace I said he was a badass.”
This short story is just a transcript of voicemails that the Shadowhunters left for M
“Please don’t ever tell Jace I said he was a badass.”
This short story is just a transcript of voicemails that the Shadowhunters left for Magnus after the end of City of Lost Souls, when he and Alec broke up. It just wasn’t enjoyable and was a lot of harassment even though I know that it was coming from a place of good. I just, thought this was honestly a bit pointless, but I know it was supposed to be heartwarming. I will also say that I think it was a really poor choice for a concluding story, because it for sure finished the entire anthology on a low note.
“...Maryse had finally learned, after five years as a medium, what the dead spoke of.”
nghi vo is one of my favorite authors, so i knew i would enjoy this short story from this collection. it was spooky, unsettling, and truly all the vibes were exactly what i look for in horror. we follow two people posing as mediums traveling in historical illinois, where they find themselves stranded at a very isolated school for young girls, in a really creepy and unsettling town, with a river that is holding dark secrets.
again, vo is such a talented writer that i felt like i was barely breathing while reading this and watching everything happen. This a very high three star from me, but upon finishing it just really left me wanting more in a good way, but also in a way that really makes me think this story would be better in a longer and more expandable format. i still fully recommend and i am still very curious about this collection of short stories.
trigger and content warnings: racism, blood depictions, murder, death, gore, + maybe choking (the writing is so good and descriptive, it made me feel it a little hehe)
“If anyone were to claim greater happiness in their careers than I do in poking about sunlit wildwoods for faerie footprints, I should not believe
“If anyone were to claim greater happiness in their careers than I do in poking about sunlit wildwoods for faerie footprints, I should not believe it.”
A woman who has been in love with the fae all her life and is taking us along on her academic research with the encyclopedia she is currently writing about them and her experiences with them? Oh, what more could I possibly ask for friends? Actually the life i wish i could have if i was around in 1909. This is also told epistolary style, with a lot of field notes, but a lot of stories, and some unexpected entries as well. But this was just a book that really worked for me and my reading wheelhouse (and heart). There is a little romance too that is also very sweet and again… the field notes are just so good. We also get to travel to some fae realms to solve a mystery that did get a little dark - so please use caution. Like, there are a lot of cozy vibes and moments and settings (omg did i love the market too) in this, but, again, there are a lot of darker themes and the story takes showing the dark faery side of things!
But i am really and truly begging for a book two.
trigger + content warnings: mention of loss of a loved one in past, mention of suicide very briefly twice, talk of kidnapping + actual kidnapping, violence, blood, gore, vomit, animal violence + death, child abandonment, spider mentions
“If we ran then we would have to admit there was something to run from.”
this year, i really want to read so much from t kingfisher! year after yea
“If we ran then we would have to admit there was something to run from.”
this year, i really want to read so much from t kingfisher! year after year, so many people recommend them and their stories to me so i knew i wanted to pick something up by them this first month of 2023. i really enjoyed this, the atmosphere, and the writing... whew... the writing was 11/10! but i think i would have enjoyed more if i would have reread the fall of the house of usher. not that you need to, this story completely stands on it's own! but this was still a powerful novella that i thoroughly enjoyed! and i can't wait to pick up something else by this author extra now! (also, the way i have read so many stories this month about spooky houses after finishing this one... completely unintentionally)
trigger + content warnings: mention of tumors for descriptions, talk of war, talk of surgery, insect depictions, death, animal death, talk of dead bodies, mention of suicide, loss of a loved one, brief mentions of transphobia
trigger + content warnings: loss of a loved one, trauma, alcoholism, extreme alcohol withdrawals,, vomiting, seizures, grief depictions, anxiety, abusive parents/bad parents, grey area cheating, blood depictions, violence, gore, homophobia, misogyny, self harm, mention of loss of a child in the past, possession (against one's will), enchantment (against one's will), insect horror, kidnapping, harming of a baby (kind of spoilers but… (view spoiler)[a rune put on a baby forcefully) (hide spoiler)]...more
“I made you into my private Christ, supplicated with my own dark devotions.”
I love epistolary novels, but this one could very well be my favorite.
“I made you into my private Christ, supplicated with my own dark devotions.”
I love epistolary novels, but this one could very well be my favorite. This is a reimagining of dracula, but told from the pov of his first bride who is writing a letter to him about their story, and we learn from the very first letter that she became his downfall. But this is also a story about abusive relationships and how power dynamics, manipulation, gaslighting, are sometimes very difficult to see. We get to see their story unfold from the very first day he made her a vampire under the promise of saving her to the very end where promises of love could no longer be masked as unconditional.
This book also very much discusses consent and how power dynamics and manipulation also can play a part in an individual saying yes when they may not under other healthier and safer circumstances. And also just… how hard it can be to leave an abusive relationship… especially when he is a powerful immortal vampire.
There is a lot of overall morally grey things happening too, and something in part 3 I just personally didn’t love - so that is why this sadly did not receive a full five stars from me. But everything else was actual perfection, the writing felt like eating honey in reading form (truly some of the best prose I've read in years), and overall this was such a powerful read that i know i will keep with me forever.
trigger + content warnings: blood, war, death, murder, abuse, gaslighting, ptsd, trauma, grief, depression, self harm for blood, self harm (with needle), anxiety, plague, medical experimentation, brief mention of human trafficking, loss of a loved one
Loading...
