Daijah
read for the tarot readathon 2023: seven of wands
this is my least fav from t.j. klune but it's still a good books. i feel like the forumla is just becoming a bit repetitive but i liked the characters and the writing still ate down. this also had an adventous aspect to it which was not my fav because that's not why i read a tj klune.
read for seasonal roulette readathon: spring 2024
i actually enjoyed this a lot more than i expected. i really enjoyed the writing, the bull riding, and the faily aspects of this story. i wish i was just more attatched to the characters.
this really made me think so much about horror and queerness. i enjoyed the diversity in queer representation and intersectionality throughout this collection as well
read for the swoon sisters' bookclub: first quarter 2024 (https://youtube.com/live/81QsPW7susE)
this was such a good fantasy romance! i loved the mmc so so much and i can't wait to see how the duet wraps up
read for the midnight society bookclub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV_Ff...
this is a pretty well liked book at least by my friends and i wanted to love it and instead i disliked it so much that it boarders on hate 😭 i do think this book sparks interesting discussions which i did enjoy. i was a guest co-host for the midnight society bookclub and i loved doing that liveshow but almost everything about this book i didn't like. i feel like this book tried to discuss so much and literally did not say anything about any of it. i hated the writing (except the transcript portions) because it was literally so try-hard. the author was trying to be quirky and different and i could tell. i also didn't like the characters and even though the author tried to make them three dimensional they still were flat to me. there is some also questionable rep in this like the bisexual rep i don't think was necessarily harmful but it wasn't good either. i have also heard there is some japanese racism at the beginning of this which i didn't pick up on personally but i would look at own voices reviews to understand that better and the effects of it. lastly the only harmful bit in this book for me was that there is a neglectful, suicidal character in this book who is also bipolar. i have bipolar II and honestly almost all the rep we get is negative and this character could have had all the same characteristics but not be bipolar just because it does reflect negatively on the community.
i loved the way this book talked about women and women's issues. the way the past mirrors the present was done so excellently. i don't even really like historical fiction but this one way phenomenal.
2023 reread
this reread made me connect to the story and the themes significantly more!
2022 readread for strangeathon 2022: lgbtq+ rep
i really enjoyed the writing here because it was so good. most horror literally doesn't affect me anymore but something about eric larocca's writing truly makes me feel unsettled and disturbed. i wish we had more of the actual story and less of the book within the book and seeing the connection between those more but i still enjoyed this book immensely nonetheless.
actual rating: 5/5
read for the black romanticathon 2023: new to you author, black love, feel good read;read for the x's and o's readathon (team o) 2023: a book with friends to lovers;read for blackathon 2023: a book that is kinky, smutty, and sex positive
this quickly has shot up to the top of my romance list! mimi grace just has amazing writing and creates such intense chemistry between her characters. i truly ate this book up and i will now be reading everything mimi grace has ever written
maybe it was just the historical setting but i just did not connect with this story. i liked where it went in the end but for being on the shorter end this book felt like it really really dragged. i just never felt compelled to pick this up at all.
stacks of strange Q1 2023 book club pick
this is somewhere between a 3 to 3.5 for me. i loved the beginning and the tension that was created and the beginning premise. i also like the twist that caused it to go more into horror territory but it just felt a bit disjointed at the end and the pacing was fine until about 60% in and then went down the toliet
this is the perfect combination of a cozy mystery and a smutty romance. this had some of my favorite smut that i've ever read and i enjoy both genres so much, that seeing them combined and seeing the cozy mystery genre become more open, is amazing. this book is a little bit instalusty and instalovely which i think was done in a realistic way but it's still not my favorite lol i love a bit more ~aNgSt~
actual rating: 4.5/5 stars
soooo i thought survivor was bad but that just made me nauseous. this book made me gag in public so thx so much judith
dnf @ 44%
read for magical readathon 2023 [moon warden]: spells and incantations (length 389-415)
this was just so slow and not helping my slump but i plan on spinnin the block and coming back to this
rachel harrison truly just is gonna do it everytime. this book perfectly conveys both raw emotions and humor. the characters in this book are truly messy which i loved and we are seeing our main character and others figure out their inner selves and navigating the relationships around them. i specifically adored rory's relationship with her twin sister.
AND THE METAPHOR OF TRANSFORMATIONNNNNNN. *chef's kiss*
read for stabathon 2022: tara carpenterread for blackoween 2022: a book with queer rep
i love love love the year of the witching and sadly this book disappointed me. i adored and vibes and atmosphere and writing but that's where my love for this book stops. there isn't much plot in this book which is completely okay and something i often enjoy IF the characterization is good. i don't need to like the characters in a character driven novel but i need them to be fleshed out and well rounded. the characters in this were flat, some barely existed, and often times the actions and the characterization didn't match up. i also didn't enjoy how the world building was done in this world overall. this is definitely one of my most disappointing books of the year
read for swoon sister's book club: july buddy read
this was just okay for me. i enjoyed the characters but there just wasn't enough worldbuilding and ik it's a series but it felt so disjointed. i just wanted more
so i'd say the first 20% was a 5 star, the middle 60% was a 2.5/3, and the last 20% was around a 3.5/4 so i'm averaging it to a 3.5 star. i loved the first 20% so much and the tension build up as well as the chemistry/history between the adopted siblings. seeing the fallout of their relationship at the end was nice because sometimes in taboo romances i feel like it gets skipped over a lot.
while q.b. tyler does write amazing smut, for me it was just a little too much smut in the middle and not enough character depth and development. this was originally a shorter story which i feel like i would have enjoyed better for this plot line than this extended version. i would still recommend for a taboo and steamy time!
read for stabathon 2022: jill robertsread for blackoween 2022: a book recently releasedread for halloweekend: a book with a halloween word in the titleread for the full moon book club september 2022
literally i loved so much about this book. i've seen some reviews say how they didn't really like the segregation aspects of this book because it was set in the modern age but i think honestly that can be very realistic to how it can actually be today still. there are many places that show the segregation displayed in the book. i also loved the writing as usually and it was so immaculate. this is honestly one of the best retellings i've read. it really took the original plot and story structure and added so much flare and twists to it, where it still felt like the original story but in a new, reimagined way. 10/10 tiffany has done it again
accidentally read this one first but i loved it regardless anyways. it was literally so cute like omg