This was so much fun! I feel like, before reading, I'd heard so many mixed reviews and went into it with reasonably low expectations. But I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen | book review
Author: Kirstie Ellen
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo | DNF book review
I'm devastated to be DNFing a Leigh Bardugo book. But wowweeeee - this was very boring.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley | book review
I'm in two minds about how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I'm impressed by the scale of the story and by some of the best character development I've ever read. On the other hand, knowing the history and serious allegations against the author has seriously tainted my reading experience. That, and the fact that by the fourth book (as this is a bind up of books 1-4), I found things edged toward tedious.
April 2025 Book Releases
Well, hello. It's been a while since I've posted anything other than a review - but here we are! Back in the good old days, I used to post regular upcoming release posts, and you know what? I miss doing that.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros | book review
This was so much better than book two - what a relief!
The Spells We Cast by Jason June | book review
I wanted to love this more than I did, but I just felt that this was ultimately a bit 'meh'. It's a very fun (and funny) concept, bringing together some classic fantasy tropes with cowboy vibes, and the queerness is delightfully through the roof.
Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu | book review
This book was a slooww read - but by the end, I'm pleased that the hard work paid off. This took me quite some time to get through because, to be frank, the first 50% of the book is boring. It's a very slow pace and favours a Tolkien-style of writing where journeying is 80% of the plot.
Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim | book review
This was super fun! Even better than expected, and I'm really blown away by the fact that this is translated, it reads as if it were originally written in English. So hats off to the translation work for a start!
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Francis Hodgson Burnett | book review
This was a very cheerful read and so much more than I had hoped for. It's the first book by Frances Hodgson Burnett that I've read, but it's got me very much so looking forward to reading her other work.
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn | book review
Another sensational Kate Quinn book. I loved every page of this and highly recommend it to Kate Quinn fans (as well as everyone else!) Though it may be somewhat different to her other books, being crime/mystery, it still has that distinctly historical-forward (and feminist-forward) tread to the plot that makes her writing so special.
Upside-Down Books 