Grooving with my library! (Book post)

Oct. 20th, 2025 12:20 pm
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv
Re-reads. HUH.

None for now.


I DNF'd

*The Falconer by Elizabeth May (New Adult Romantasy) - In 1874 Scotland, Aileana tries her best to go along with her image as a member of the aristocracy. However, she's also the last Falconer, a specific type of fae hunter. She teams up with Kiaran McKay, a fae who kills his own kind. Together, they're meant to stop a horrible tragedy from happening . . .

I first heard abt this novel a good decade ago, back when I was reading a lot of YA. For some reason, I never got around reading it, tho. The only other thing I knew was that it was the first in a trilogy.

Years later, I heard that the author had revised all three books in order to bring the series closer to her original vision for the story. Now, characters were adults, there would be more on-page violence as well as some spicy scenes. Sounded like a good time to me!

OTOH, there's technically nothing bad abt the book itself. It's v. likely a novel that some folks will enjoy.

Unfortch for me, I found this author's writing to continue in a v. flowery/almost overwritten style which distracted the heck out of me. Frex (an excerpt from Chapter 3) emphasis mine:

The weak morning light filters through the misted windows, framing my mother's rigid silhouette in soft gold.

I take a sip of tepid tea, studying her. The proud tilt of her chin, the steely glint in her dark eyes--all signs of mourning transmuted into cold purpose.


This author sure LURVES adjectives. #Sheeesh!

Then there's Aileana, the protagonist, who is 21 years old* yet comes off as someone in her mid-teens through her behavior, thoughts, and opinions. She also has a "Not Like Other Girls (TM)" aura that got v. tiresome v. fast. Her immaturity brings what should've been a New Adult novel down to mid-YA levels.

* The fact that she's 21 is brought up a few too many times in that first 12%. By the fourth or fifth time she mentions being 21, I bit back an "I KNOW! YOU'VE MENTIONED THIS BEFORE!", NGL.

Finally, aside from the fae being actual!monsters (something akin to magical vampires?), there really wasn't anything in the story to bring it out of "generic YA fantasy mode". IJS. I DNF'd this book somewhere before 15% and gave it a 2 out of 5.


Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there).

* Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews - After a whole lotta ups and downs, Maud accepts Lord Arnald's invitation to his home planet. She's not sure if she's going to accept his wedding proposal AND she's also thinking abt her half-human, half-vampire daughter Helen. So the two of them head on to the seat of power of House Krahr. Between an upcoming wedding between two smaller houses, alien friends, mysterious aliens, and several attempts to her life, Maud's got her hands full . . .

This is Book 4 in the Innkeeper Chronices and, something of a spin-off since it follows Maud instead of Dina. It's also an IA book so worldbuilding? Spectacular. Plot? Engaging. Pacing? Solid.


HOWEVAH, there were three things I had some SRS BIZNESS issues with.

1. The way Maud/Arland's romance was portrayed.

No one would question Maud and Arland being a Power Couple. EVERYONE knows they're in love with each other. Still, Maud has some internal stuff to work thru before her relationship with Arland can solidify for good. And that's fair.

My problem is that, even though both are staying at the same location (heck, their rooms are next to each other!), they spend large chunks of the book APART. I was tapping my watch by the halfway point because the bulk of their interactions would be having The World's Shortest Conversations Ever (TM). It's not that I was expecting a boinkfest, but I wanted MORE romance taking center stage instead of being almost an afterthought. Eventually, there were smooches and even an intimate scene (that was closed door, btw). But these happened wayyyyy later in the book.

2. Maud was too perfect.

I liked her. I truly did. Some parts of her character journey--such as processing her trauma while struggling to leave her survivor!mode mindset behind--were fascinating.

OTOH, she also had deep knowledge of aliens, their cultures, and languages. To the point she could speak Common AND Ancient Vampiric dialects! In addition to that, she was a superb fighter. Totes able to go against anyone without the help of technology. Finally, she was a brilliant tactician.

One could argue that the first two things could be explained via her upbringing. As the daughter of innkeepers, she'd met and interacted with all kinds of aliens since childhood. Readers also learned that her father had hired fighting tutors for Maud to hone her skills.

Two vague and non-spoilery examples of what I mean.

Scene A - After being treated with contempt by all but 3 vampires (Arland, his uncle, and his female cousin), Maud attends a fancy dinner. Her seat is with the 9 tachi, an insect-like alien race, who are visiting the vampire planet. The tachi are sitting v. stiffly and ignoring the Universe's Worst Salads (TM)that were presented to them.

As soon as she sees all of that, she takes fruit and prepares a plate for the royal member of the tachi present. She also speaks to them in their language. The waiters freak out and then, after some minutes, bring out plates similar to the one Maud came up with.

I πŸ™„ at the fact that vampires didn't know that there was a MEMBER OF THE ROYAL TACHI FAMILY in the group OR that the tachi are particular abt plating in that food must make geometric designs. BUT MAUD KNEW!

Scene B - A creature is attacking the vampire children. WHO KILLS THE CREATURE? Maud does (with some assist from Arland). This happens despite there being over 20 vampire knights present--who all decide to RUN AWAY? I... SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH.

The cherry on top was something that occurred in the last third of the book.
HUGE SPOILERDuring said battle against the creature, Maud is able to temporarily stop time--which is something that only the ad-hal can do. She's never done that before and, apparently, can't do again? But, yeah, it was thanks to this ability that she was able to slay the creature and save her daughter.


And THAT was the point got Maud to cross the line into Mary Sue territory. πŸ€·πŸ½β€β™€οΈ

This last point was exacerbated by the last of my complaints. She literally had OTT skills that weren't matched (or surpassed) by the villains. Which was different from all of the other female protags in IA books. Yes, even the Kate Daniels novels.


3. The villains were painfully MID! 😞

A good villain will elevate a book no matter how mediocre the story might be. Unfortch, the villains in this novel were childish and stupid. There wasn't a single moment I worried abt any of the characters. The stakes weren't high at all.


In any case, this was v. rare miss from IA. Not nearly enough romance, Maud was too perfect, and weak villains. I did enjoyed some of the scenes featuring political intrigue, the way Maud navigated a situation that was tenuous, and the v. few moments between her and Arland. This book should've been a novella. It ends on a soft-yet-intriguing cliffhanger. I gave it a 2.3 out of 5.

It sucks to give it such a low rating (especially cuz I was entertained, but this is deffo a really meh book from IA. *Hands*

ETA: I'd forgotten to mention that part of my :| abt this book popped up after I finished a review that mentioned something that readjusted my perspective on this book. It was the fact that the vampires in this series are actually Space Colonizers--down to being extremely xenophobic toward other aliens. This in turn means that I was actively hoping for Maud to be with one of the few, actually "good", i.e. non-racist, vampires. And I basically πŸ˜” after that. FTR, that didn't affect my overall ranking, but I am SMH ar myself for not picking that theme up faster.

It was . . . fine?

None.


Good vibes all around.

* Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews - The second novel in the Innkeeper Chronicles finds Dina hosting a summit between three different alien species. (I promise you the actual!story is way more interesting than this premise makes it sound like.)

This novel is the perfect example of what it means to have an excellent reading experience.

There were moments I laughed, others when I actual!cried. It's a book with thrilling scenes as well as heartbreaking ones. This is IA running on all cylinders cuz wow, what a book!

Did I have any issues? Sure, I had two (though they were so small they couldn't bring the rating down).

1. The solution to one of the big conflicts was a bit woo-woo for my taste. OTOH, it made sense given everything that was going on. So, even though I πŸ™„ a little, I got why things had to be solved the way they did.

2. This book put romance on the backseat and made it stay there for most of the plot. IIRC, not much happens in that department until near the end of the book. Before that, it's a lot of daydreaming and pining. Despite my pouting abt the lack of lovey-dovey scenes, I can't think of where IA could've inserted some romance because of all of the extremely SRS BIZNESS plot.

I also feel quite smug abt realizing something abt a character and then seeing my hunch getting confirmed, heheh. But I will 🀐.

Anyhoodle,this book was magnificent, wonderful, melancholy, thought-provoking, tender, funny, brilliant, fabulous, hilarious, cheeky, etc. Let me stop praising this book cuz I don't have all day, LOL. It's earned a SOLID 5 OUT OF 5 (If you know me, you know I don't give 5 stars to every other book I read, IJS.)

One thing I do feel the need to point out is that the lulzy vibes from the first half do segue into something a lot more serious. It was a great book that had a perfect balance of emotions.


* One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews - The third novel in the Innkeeper Chronicles finds Dina juggling a lot of things: rescuing her older sister Maud from a planet far away and offering sanctuary to an alien species that's on the verge of becoming extinct. As an Innkeeper, Dina likes to fulfill her guests' requests. This time, though, she might need some help . . .

LISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEN, there was a point during which I thought my final rating for this novel was gonna be lower.

FTR, I was having a fantastic time following Dina through all of the ups and downs. I also appreciated that there were a few more human and/or humanoid characters whose skin tone was deeper. (I'm still 🀞🏾 for some queer folks to pop up in the series, but I digress.)

However, in the middle of my elation abt everything happening, I was worried abt the large amount of plot IA kept adding to the novel. Aside from the main storyline (which is mentioned in the premise), I counted 5 more asmaller rcs. On top of that, most of them were disparate AF. Or, at the v. least, appeared to be.

I know, I know. After reading over 20 of their books, I should've trusted that IA would stick the landing in the most graceful of ways. Which they did.

Plus there was a part where not one but TWO major reveals happened almost back-to-back. One made me sit up and clap with glee (metaphorically speaking) while the other reveal touched my heart to the point that I did cried.

Then the story comes to a close with the softest of cliffhangers while also being v. satisfying all the same.

Loved how IA went IN in terms of worldbuilding. There's a lot more exploring of the universe this time around AND more opportunities to meet a lot of interesting and weird aliens as well.

ANOTHER THING I LOVED ABT THIS BOOK was that IA anticipated their readers' questions and made sure potential plot holes were taken care of.

My one (1) issue with the novel had to do with the one (1) intimate scene in the book. Like most of IA's other novels, the intimate scene in this book was full of bad cringe. OTOH, though, I liked seeing Dina and Sean talking things out and solidifying their relationship. So my complaint is actually v. small.

This book is a lotta plot, but also tons of fun and thrills. There was romance (and a rather cringe-y sex scene) and some laughs as well as softer moments to keep things from tipping one way or another. Therefore, I cannot give it anything less than 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.


Current fic tally

Have picked up 197 and DNF'd 91. Not bad!


Some thoughts

My πŸ˜• abt Sweep of the Blade aside, Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles has carried my reading momentum. So yays to that!

FWIW, I didn't have super high expectations for The Falconer? Elizabeth May's books have been mostly misses for me (this the third book of hers I pick up and the second I DNF.) I do know she's got another book dropping in January that I might pick up? And I'm curious abt her historical romances. IDK

All in all, I where I am in terms of this year's reading.


Up next

Last time: [...] "a historical paranormal that's not cozy. I've renewed it for a second time.

Aside from that, I'm halfway thru the second book in the Innkeeper series and I'm trying to see which horror novels I'm gonna dive in. It's October after all. πŸ˜›"

I returned that historical paranormal (cuz I legit didn't want to renew it again.) Will try to read it later.

Right now, I've got the last two published books for the Innkeeper Chronicles, an M/M/F fantasy romance, and I'm reading the first book in a female detective series. Dunno why, but my yays for reading horror have sort of gone to ground? I might end up reading something scary next month, IDK. πŸ˜…

AWS outage

Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

Light Black #16 [The Fulcrum]

Oct. 18th, 2025 03:06 pm
[personal profile] paradoxcase posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Quantification of Time Travel
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Light Black #16: Rush
Styles and Supplies: Brushes (October 18, 2025: Muse)
Word Count: 2898
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Sapfita, Peatäro
In-Universe Date: 1912.3.5.3
Summary: Qhoroali measures the speed of time travel; Sapfita gives Setsiana an idea.
Note: I just realized I had missed posting the in-universe date on a number of recent entries, whoops. They should all be there now.

Quantification of Time Travel )

Vert #27; Warm Heart#8 [Starfall]

Oct. 18th, 2025 06:11 pm
thisbluespirit: (viyony)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Harbour
Story: Starfall
Colors: Vert #27 (We must dream and remember; Warm Heart #8 (Courtesy)
Supplies and Styles: Silhouette + Portrait + Sculpture + Novelty Beads (from [personal profile] shadowsong26 for December Gift Exchange 2020: Yes, it's true that we are all mortal. But some of us manage to form strong attachments nevertheless. --Miss Manners)
Word Count: 5079
Rating: Teen
Warnings: References to sex.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313. Viyony Eseray/Leion Valerno, Iyana Valerno, Tam Jadinor. Continues directly from Storms & the final section of this sequence, after which we will be back to pieces as normal, and into the final bit of this overall arc. \o/ The part with the cards was originally posted as House of Cards, making this a Sculpture. (I inserted it more or less complete here, give or take some further tweaks).
Summary: Leion takes Viyony home.

Harbour )

Vert#13 [Starfall]

Oct. 14th, 2025 08:51 pm
thisbluespirit: (viyony)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Storms
Story: Starfall
Colors: Vert #13 (Anchor)
Supplies and Styles: Portrait + Novelty Beads (Nightmare - from [personal profile] bookblather, Birthday Prompts 2020 & Waters - April Food Challenge 2024)
Word Count: 5326
Rating: PG
Warnings: Threat of drowning, sea-sickness.
Notes: Calla Island, 1313. Viyony Eseray, Leion Valerno, Lynah Allin. Continues on directly from Assignations.
Summary: Viyony's determined to get Leion off the island.

Storms )
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv
Based on an Agatha Christie novel from 1944, Toward Zero is the fifth and final book featuring Superintendent Battle. It's been adapted a few times; I'm most familiar with the two (out of the three that have been made so far) TV adaptations below.

The general premise is the following:

Neville Strange is a famous professional tennis player who is known for being calm and classy. He'd been married to Audrey for nearly a decade. They get divorced due to Neville cheating on her with Kay. He goes on to marry Kay, the now second Mrs. Strange, while Audrey remains single.

For whatever reason, though, Neville and Audrey remain friendly. They agree to visit Gulf's Point, the house of Lady Tressillian (a rich woman who is the widow of Neville's guardian) at the same time. This is borderline scandalous since it means that there will be two Mrs. Stranges (Lady Triessilian is v. old school so the household staff (frex) address Audrey as Mrs. Strange). In any case, Neville, Kay, Audrey, and a few others try to make the best out of an admittedly awkward AF situation only for ppl to start getting murdered…

It's not a fave of my Christie standalones, but I get why it's an alluring story to adapt.



Towards Zero (2008) (Hoopla)

This is a 3rd season episode of ITV's "Marple" series.

Some folks don't like it cuz it's pretty much an AU of a non-Miss Marple book. Don't know why, but ITV thought it cool to start inserting Miss Marple in all kinds of standalone novels to varying degrees of success. I mean, I get they were running out of Marple novels, but Christie did write several short stories they could've worked with.

IMO, this is one of the most successful efforts. Especially when contrasted with the bumbling mess that was The Pale Horse episode. YMMV.

ANYWHO, in this episode, it's established that Jane (played by Geraldine McEwan) and Camilla Tressilian (played by Eileen Atkins) are childhood friends who have kept in touch throughout the years. Coincidentally,Jane happens to visit Camilla at the same time Neville, Kay, Audrey et all show up.

FWIW, the three most famous actors in the cast are Saffron Burrows as Audrey, Tom Baker as Fredrick Treves, and the late Julian Sands as Thomas (Audrey's cousin.)

I really like Burrow's portrayal of Audrey as a woman who is sweet, cultured, and kind. In addition, her version of Audrey always has an aura of sadness that makes viewers intrigued. Greg Wise as Neville Strange is ridic good in playing a playboy fella who is extremely likable.

The pacing is good, Miss Marple's addition brings a playful vibe to a twisty story, and the omitted bits from the original novel aren't missed.


Do I have any criticisms?

Actually none. If you're a fan of Miss Marple, you'll like it. Same if you just like good mysteries.


Do I recommend it?

Yes, I do! I watched it on Hoopla (it tends to be available over there every so often.) Sometimes, I've also seen it available on Amazon Prime Video.

I'm giving it a 4 out of 5


Queerness level

None that I could see, unfortch.



Towards Zero (2025) (Britbox)

I'd seen the trailer for this version and was intrigued enough to keep an eye out for it.

This one follows the same story with the key difference that it's a bit more faithful to the novel. Also, the most famous actor in the cast is the great Angelica Huston as Lady Tressilian. She's AMAZING and one of the best things in the entire mini-series.

The next most famous actor is Matthew Rhys as Inspector Leach. In this instance, he's a functional alcoholic. Unfortch, tho, because he's the second most well-known actor in the cast, the producers keep inserting him into the narrative (by having him talk to other characters and then fade into the background) in a way that is ultimately v. sloppy. I guess they didn't want to wait and bring him in at the logical point (after the murders begin), but there we are.

With the exception of one actor (that I'll talk abt later), everyone in the cast is pretty solid from beginning to end.

Some of the characters are played by actors of color (and, thankfully, the script adjusts with adding some touches abt race and racism that, although light, are welcomed. I detest raceblind casting that ignores how different a character's story would be if they weren't white.) The cinematography is cool as well.

One Trigger/Content Warning I gotta mention is for attempted suicide. [Character] tries do drown themselves. It's pretty disturbing. FTR, the character is OK afterwards, but still..


Do I have any criticisms?

There were some issues…

Firstly, I wonder why this is 3 FREAKING HOURS LONG? A full hour could've been taken out and the story would've worked fine. The excessive runtime means that the pace is GLACIAL for most of the miniseries. Lots of moments of the cameras panning or zooming into a close-up and just staying on the actor's face for no apparent reason. Things do pick up once the investigation is underway.

Secondly, Ella Lily Hyland as Audrey Strange is full of mixed signals. Her version of Audrey is of an assertive woman of the world. Which clashes with the character's storyarc. Audrey is meant to be the character that viewers are meant to sympathize with the most (even while suspecting her). However, due to Hyland's portrayal, most viewers will basically SHRUG everything off, IJS.

Thirdly, there are two other characters who don't add a single damn thing to the story. I'm guessing they're present to bulk up some of the main cast? But their inclusion into the overall narrative is so forced that I could only ROLLING EYES EMOJI.

Before I go into my fourth complaint, I gotta preface that I'm not a prude, I don't automatically clutch my imaginary pearls whenever there's a sex scene. Ideally, sex scenes (especially when it comes to not having existed in the original material) will make sense.

I say that cuz the team behind this mini-series (just like the 2016 adaptation of Witness for the Prosecution) decided to add a lot of spice. And so, there's a scene SPOILER in which two characters are making out on the staircase that's in the foyer. Things get heated up to the point that the guy starts to eat out the woman right then and there. Anyone can literally see this happening. END OF SPOILER It's so fucking random cuz it does not fit with the tone/mood of everything that happened in the miniseries. My best guess is that the producers were aiming to go for shocking, but it ends up being nonsensical AF.

Some of the characters' motivations aren't clear and so, when the murders begin, viewers are like ???? abt the goings on. This is weird given that the length of the miniseries. Even weirder is how much infodumping happens. There's more than enough space to show instead of telling!!! IJS.

MOVING ON.

Another actor I had a hard time with was Mimi Keene as Kay Strange, nee Elliot. That character is brash and sensual with just enough charm to keep her from being super unlikable. The problem here is two-fold. For starters, Keene has a limited acting range. She can do angry, vicious, and alluring without any problems. However, she is unable (at least in this version) to do vulnerable or conflicted at all. On top of that, she's got what's casually known as "Instagram/Influencer face". Yes, she's dressed up and styled in the mid-1030s fits, and she looks gorgeous, BUT she gives the impression of being someone on her way to a costume party. Unlike the rest of the cast who look fine, Keene's fits kept me taking out of the story.

And then, there's the end…

FTR, the identity of the murderer and the reasons why they did what they did remains faithful to the novel. However, the mini-series goes past the reveal and decide to show what the surviving characters are gonna do. It was (bad) cheesy.


Do I recommend it?

Not really. It was a mostly disappointing viewing experience. The story was slow AND convoluted. Some of the casting was so-so. I'm giving it a 1.6 out of 5


Queerness level

The way Keene (as Kay) shows her jealousy of Audrey's bond to Neville is by REALLY focusing on her. She makes it look like Kay kinda wants to get with Audrey. It was v. ???? cuz Hyland (as Audrey)'s response was to play along. And it's unclear if it's because she's attracted to Kay OR if it's just to further humiliate her? I kept raising an eyebrow at the two or three scenes where the vibes slide into potentially (and deffo toxic) F/F.

Though I do have to say that the two of them had INTENSE chemistry. Like WAY more than either of them had with Neville, LOL.


Le Trailer



This is the artsier of the trailers. It does a really good job on establishing the suspense too.

Realgar #15 [The Fulcrum]

Oct. 13th, 2025 02:59 pm
[personal profile] paradoxcase posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Transtimeline Whispers
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #15: Murmur
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette, Life Drawing, Tempera (this spread, interpreted as need / want)
Word Count: 1394
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.3.4.6, 1912.3.5.1
Summary: Setsiana asks Sapfita about the strange dream.

Transtimeline Whispers )

Completion Banners!

Oct. 12th, 2025 07:20 pm
silvercat17: (Default)
[personal profile] silvercat17 posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
If you're motivated by banners, take a look at ALL the things you can earn. All you have to do is comment with what you've earned - it's all on the honor system. You can also just grab one of the generic banners (not available for all colors or color/style combinations). Need help figuring out what banners you've earned? Try the Auto Counting Tracking Sheet

thisbluespirit-beet-red.png

silvercat-fade-to-grey.png

ParadoxCase )

Warm Heart #28; Vert #26 [Starfall]

Oct. 10th, 2025 08:31 pm
thisbluespirit: (viyony)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit posting in [community profile] rainbowfic
Name: Assignations
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #28 (Heart); Vert #26 (We may be hopeless to stop bad things but...)
Supplies and Styles: Portrait + Silhouette + Thread + Novelty Beads (October 2024 Challenge: 2) https://64.media.tumblr.com/1880f54617fb7285e7c9acc7db993a09/a5625f96e28a4d41-81/s540x810/030dc8ceac43f5277500399c9539501177aea2c4.jpg [img of text screen reading "Are you flirting with me?" "I'm trying. I have no idea what i'm doing.")
Word Count: 8293
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Death, blood, injury, mild references to sex.
Notes: 1313, Calla Island. Viyony Eseray/Leion Valerno, Tess Hyan, Velin Ienkallis, Lynah Allin. Continues on directly from Dazzled. (The longest section of this sequence).
Summary: Viyony arranges an assignation with Leion, but she's not the only one with plans for midnight.

Assignations )

I keep reading... (Book Post)

Oct. 10th, 2025 12:38 pm
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv
Re-Reads. HUH.

None so far.


I DNF'd

I did get v. close to bouncing from one of the books, but I finished it out of sheer curiosity.



Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there.)

* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise (M/F romantasy) - Kin is a literal soulless assassin who is abt to complete her latest mission. Only for Verias, her target, to react with quiet acceptance. She starts a conversation with him, and then proposes a trade: she'll set him free and, in exchange, he'll help her find her soul and destroy it.

This book was promoted as a "slow burn, assassin x target romantasy". I was R-E-A-D-Y for Knife Waves and the people who love them!

On the positive side, I liked that Kin was 40 y.o. while Verias is in his mid-to-late 40s. Both are bisexual. Kin is Black and fat. The worldbuilding (and the worldbuilding ONLY) is quite robust. Especially w/r/t to the magic system.

However, I did have some serious issues with this novel. Behold my list of grievances:

1. This book should've been 100 pages shorter. It also needed a good developmental edit.

2. I also was not onboard with Kin and Verias' romance. Based on the promo, I was expecting a lot of tension between them as they travel to the place where Kin's soul is being held. After all, Kin WAS going to kill Verias and they're strangers.

Unfortch, the "slow burn" only lasted until the 15-20% mark. By which point, it's pretty clear they each find the other attractive. Kin also slides into protector!mode by Chapter 2, so any bit of potential push-and-pull between them disappeared into the ether. I do think they had good sexual chemistry. Their intimate scenes were good. The whole emotional side of things, though, was lacking.

3. Although I liked Kin as an MC, I did πŸ™„ at her characterization as an assassin. FTR, she's v. good and brutal at times. However, something that kept recurring throughout the story was that, whenever she needed to fight someone 1 on 1, she'd either let them go OR temporarily incapacitate them.

The moment I realized this was during a scene when she chokes a female assassin until the assassin passes out. Then a friend of Kin walks in and says "wow, you must be getting soft. Why didn't you kill her?". Kin in in the middle of replying to her friend when her friend takes a knife and kills the assassin. I was v. ???? as to why Kin didn't do that in the first place, IJS.

3.5 I was also uncomfortable with the fact that 2 out of the 3 soulless assassins shown were Black people (Kin and a nonbinary character named Merrit), with the 3rd one being a nameless white guy who shows up in 2 scenes total. Meanwhile all of the sorcerers are white.

See also the fact that Kin is Black and Verias is described as white.

AAAAND the over-reliance on mentions of Kin's hair to identify her as Black was odd. Most of the time, the book describes Kin's hair as long, curly, and dyed red. She never wears it in braids nor uses any kind of protective hairstyle. IIRC, she only mentions hair oil once. And, due to a temporary loss of magic during a specific scene, she is annoyed to see that her hair is now kinky.

IIRC, her skin tone was mentioned fewer times when compared to her hair. The ONLY reason why I noticed this was because the latter happened so often.

I'm also v. "that's not quite right" when it came to descriptions of her body. Readers are told she's fat and that's abt it. Oh, wait, there's a scene where Verias mentions Kin's curves. I... OKAY THEN!

What I mean to say is that there are ways to describe characters' races and bodies. This author did a bad job of both.

4. I'm not sure if the author intended this book to be the first in a series or a duology or what. Because there are a few things that get brought up in the last part of the book only to be left drifting into the ether.

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST THIRD OF THE NOVEL

* All throughout the book, there is an evil lord who wants to take over everything. Kin murders him (in the silliest way possible) near the end of the novel; the evil lord's adult children are also killed. This inspires the people to stage a really fast revolution and destroy the evil lord's armies. Which is fine.

HOWEVAH, this results in a bizarre power vacuum. Especially because there are ZERO mentions of who exactly the evil lord's armies have been fighting against? The socioeconomic system appears to be feudal in nature, but it's not quite defined at the same time. Then, things get even more absurd at the end of the book when the ppl want Kin to organize things/become a leader since she's the one who killed the evil lord. What?

FTR, she does decline the offer, but this does point out that no one else is worthy/around to take care of things. IDK.

* The place where the soulless assassins are created is blown up, and all but 2 of the sorcerers are killed. It so happens that those two sorcerers have survived because Kin didn't kill them when she had the chance and instead LET THEM GO. *sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

* Sometime during the last chapters, Kin finds out she has had the same ancient and powerful magic her parents have. BUT her mom deemed Kin to be too emotional/volatile to wield the magic and so she repressed her daughter's power. Does Kin manages to convince her mother to free her own magic? Maybe teach Kin how to use her powers? OR, perhaps, Kin tries to figure out a way to break the barriers on her own and/or with Verias' help?

NO. Neither thing happens. Instead, Kin and her mom have an argument abt it. . . and that's it. Β―\_(ツ)_/Β―

* To top all of this off, there's a plague spreading everywhere. And things are so dire that the city the MCs are at is under lockdown. But both MCs have things to do, so they keep going places and returning to the city. I can't even . . . πŸ™ƒ


In short, just as the book is winding down, the author is packing in a LOT of storylines that remained unsolved. IDEK what to tell y'all.

5. And then, there's the ending. πŸ€ͺ


Kin begins the story bound to a nameless sorcerer who took her soul and stored it in the Vault of Souls. This was done as punishment for a crime she committed (attempting to steal a brooch that belonged to the evil lord dude.)

She ends the novel
BIG SPOILER AHOY!bound to a NEW sorcerer who takes her soul. But it's TOTALLY COOL THIS TIME cuz the new sorcerer is Verias + they're both IN LURVE + he added an extra spell to keep her safe or whatever. Oh, and Verias is holding Kin's soul inside his body, right next to his own soul.

THIS IS A TERRIBLE ENDING! Kin angsts/worries A TON abt her soul. She's OBSESSED WITH GETTING RID OF IT FOR GOOD across 300+ pages ONLY TO END UP IN THE SAME SITUATION (BY HER OWN VOLITION, MIND YOU), BUT πŸ’“LOVEπŸ’“, Y'ALL. 😬😬😬😬😬😬

IMO, the author chickened out. A much better/romantic ending would've been to fuse Kin and Verias' souls together. OR, hell, have Kin actually try to destroy her soul and either fail or succeed at it. IJS.


Although I did finished it, the more I read this novel, the more my general reaction was "I guess?"

I truly wish the author had gotten a good editor to rework this novel into something less messy and overstuffed. The ending was the opposite of awesome. A v. dissatisfying read. I doubt I'll ever read anything else by this author.

This book is not horrible enough to give it 1-star, but it's also not one I'd recommend to anyone. So I'm giving it a v. rare (for me) rounding up rating to 2 out of 5.



It was . . . fine?

* One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (Historical mystery) - 5th and last book in the Electra McDonnell series. It's 1941 and Ellie goes to Lisbon, Portugal on the most important mission of her life.

The first half of the book was a true BORE. And I say that as someone who has not only read the previous books in this series, but also the entirety of the Amory Ames novels. Seeing Ellie reminiscing abt her past adventures was annoying. And then, whenever the book moved away from that, it'd be nothing but full descriptions of what she did and visited in Lisbon.

There was a lot (and I do mean A FUCKING LOT) of telling instead of showing. So, despite Ellie going here, there, and everywhere, the mood was incredibly passive. I got the feeling that everyone (Ellie, me, and the author) was waiting for something (anything!) to happen in order to get things going properly. FWIW, although I understand why the book had to be set outside of England, I do wish that the author had edited out a few of the pages abt Ellie's trip to Lisbon.

My one (1) quibble abt the finale had to do with the fact that the series ended way too early into WW2. Although I do firmly believe in the strong HFN finale to the series, I couldn't help but think abt the fact that all of the characters still had a few more years of the conflict to live thru. So that dimmed my yays a bit.


THANKFULLY, things got verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting in the second half of the novel, heheh.

For starters, there was the romance between Ellie and Major Ramsey and the utterly delicious curveball that the novel threw in their direction.

THEN the story took off and I practically zoomed thru the rest of the book.

My fave character was Archie. Loved his personality. His friendship with Ellie was delightful AF.

IMO, the best part of this novel has to be the last 10 chapters. I gave this book a 2.7 out of 5.


Good vibes all around

* Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews (Urban fantasy) - Dina owns a Victorian bed and breakfast in a small Texan town. She's got one guest, is a doggie parent to a cute Shih Tzu, and is an overall normal person. But there's more to Dina, her inn, her dog, and and the guest.

She butts heads with a new neighbor while investigating a dangerous creature terrorizing her neighborhood. Even though she really shouldn't get involved, Dina is not abt to let chaos reign... This is the first book in IA's Inkeeper Chronicles series.

Whenever I start a new IA book, I do so with high expectations. After reading 20 IA books, I know that my expectations will either be met or, more often, surpassed.

Did this novel have fantastic worldbuilding, a gripping plot, and excellent action scenes? YES. YES, IT DID! I also liked Dina: she's a protagonist you cheer for from page 1. Her dynamic with Sean was ridiculous, but that's to be expected in an IA book, hahah.

One thing I kept in mind was the Andrews' blueprint. The female MC will almost always be an attractive, cishet woman who's somewhere in her 20s. She'll have some degree of snarkiness. Her male love interest will always be a literal alpha dude (see Curran in the KD series and Connor in the first trilogy for the Hidden Legacy novels.) I've come to accept that and gently πŸ™„ because it's so rare for IA to step into something different.

A friend of mine mentioned something that I agree with: this novel is v., v. white. Every single human character is white. And I deffo :| at that. SOME characters of color (as well as some queer ones) would've been super, IJS.

I also have to say the last part with the actual!Big Bad got a bit convoluted. Finally, I kinda πŸ˜’ at Sean when, right before the final battle, he does something after using his wolf-y aura or whatever. A part of me was like "bruh, this could be considered assault, but you do you, I guess...". FWIW, I'm aware of the inevitability of him and Dina becoming a couple (especially since he's on the covers for books 4 and 5). But that doesn't mean I'm thrilled of how things began.

Aside from that, I did ended up LMAO a lot and found this to be quite the thrilling urban fantasy. So I gave this novel a 4.7 out of 5.


Current fic tally

Picked up 194 fics, DNF'd 90.


Some Thoughts

Readingwise, things were v. uneven. One novel was a disappointment, one was quite meh, and I was gaga over the last one. In any case, I seem to be way past the (now usual) summer reading slump. Huzzah for that!

Up Next...

Last time: "am halfway thru the third one (which is NOT set in space)--though IDK if I'll finish it, and ended up renewing the fourth book before it was due back to the library. I'm also in the middle of another book which is the last one in a series. 🀞🏾 for good reading ahead!"

The third book I'm talking abt is Bitterbound (which some folks had also talked abt as being a queer femdom romance. FTR, yes, the two MCs are bi, but that's it AND the femdom is so subtle I almost missed it). Meanwhile, the fourth book is a historical paranormal that's not cozy. I've renewed it for a second time.

Aside from that, I'm halfway thru the second book in the Innkeeper series and I'm trying to see which horror novels I'm gonna dive in. It's October after all. πŸ˜›

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