Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

5⭐️ 2🌶 In preparation for the third book in the trilogy, Winds of Ruin, to come out; I decided to re-read the first two books in the series.  I finished Born of Starlight a couple days ago and immediately began City of Snakes.  I finished City of Snakes last night. 5⭐️ 2🌶  Both these books are amazing.  Born of Starlight is a loose Rapunzel retelling and City of Snakes is Beauty and the Beast with sort of an Aladdin setting.  They are deep, emotional and tense.  I was on the edge of my seat reading them the first time.  The lives of pretty much all the characters hang in the balance and it's not certain everyone will survive.  This time through I knew who lived and died so it was slightly less tense, but they both are so well written I still was drawn into the story.  I was chosen for an ARC of the third book Winds of Ruin and I got an email notification yesterday that the release date had been moved up from the 22nd...

5⭐️ .5-1🌶 The Last Guardian by Laura Collin.  This ARC was truly amazing.  This had so much yearning and tension.  Alyana the FMC is a princess.  Her mother died 5 years ago and the night before her mother's remembrance celebration a mark appears on Alyana's wrist.  Alyana has questions about the mark, she knows or feels like its some sort of bad omen and she needs to be careful about who she shows it to.  Alyana is still grieving her mother.  She was the one with her when she died and it was under suspicion circumstances.  Alyana has no memory of what actually happened.  She woke up in a pool of blood with her mother dead in her arms.  Her father is a spiteful abusive piece of crap.  She has 4 other siblings and the first portion of the book sets up the relationship she has with the rest of her family.  I actually found this very interesting.  Her older sister is betrothed and about to be married off to anoth...

March was an excellent month for me.  All six of my completed reads were 5 stars.  A Flickering Remnant is such a beautiful story.  It's a fantasy romance that has a Gothic feeling to it.  It's got maternal mental health representation, a curse, an elemental magic system, witches, some amazing found family, a ton of mystery and it's absolutely beautifully written as well.  I loved it so much I bought myself a signed copy.  Sheltered Fate was just plain fun.  It was book three in a series of interconnected stand alones.  It's what all monster romance should be, in my opinion.  The Troll MMC was a kind and gentle cinnamon roll.  I enjoyed this one so much I abandoned all other responsibility and read the first book in the series too.  Fresh-Brewed Fate was also just plain fun.  It was more adventurous and the world was a little bigger but again the Orc MMC was another cinnamon roll.  I rounded out my month by sta...

  I'm currently participating in the Readathon taking place in the Wicked Darlings Facebook group.  The Wicked Darlings group is the LJ Andrews fan club.  Those who have decided to participate are reading all nine books of The Broken Kingdom series and then the three books that are released from The Ever Seas series in preparation/celebration of the October release of The Stolen Crown.  There is a timeline for the reads but its really just a loose guideline.  I'm hosting buddy reads on StoryGraph for the books.  I finished Curse of Shadows and Thorns last evening and I'm already nearly halfway through book two, Court of Ice and Ash now.     Anyone who knows me knows I love LJ Andrews and these two series.  I first read these first 6 books about three years ago.  It's been great fun to revisit this world and pick out details I missed the first time around.  I know these characters and events so I can see the foreshadowing, see the li...

5⭐️ 2🌶 I finished Fresh-Brewed Fate by Aeva Vox last evening.  I really enjoying this book as well.  I started reading immediately after finishing the ARC of Sheltered Fate.  Fresh-Brewed Fate is the fist book in the Bound Across Realms series.  This book follows Essa, a human living in Thyra.  Thyra is the realm that connects all the other Realms and creatures together so its a melting pot of culture and experience.  Essa's dream of opening a coffee shop and bakery are about to be realized.  She is putting the finishing touches on her shop as the book opens.  Henker is an Orc.  He has just retired.  He's the first and only Orc who has done so.  His plan was to check into a luxurious Elf hotel and do nothing for a while.  But when he arrived at the hotel and the elves realized Henker was an Orc they canceled his reservation.  The Orcs started a war a few decades back and there is a stigma that follows them whe...

  5 ⭐ 2🌶 I finished an ARC of Sheltered Fate by Aeva Vox late last night.  I read it in less than 24 hours.  It is only a 250 page book, but it was excellent.  It was a cozy funny monster smut book.  Creag the troll MMC is older and resigned to a life of bachelorhood.  He travels back to his home troll realm in search of answers about a metal shard one of his human friends found.  Instead of finding answers he stumbles into the human realm, our modern day one and finds Shelby the FMC.  Shelby has taken over her parent's inn up in the mountains of California.  There is a blizzard and Shelby encounters Creag when she stumbles down a ravine during said storm.  Her eyes are damaged by the ice of the blizzard so she can't see that Creag is a troll.  He finds them shelter in a cave and nurses her back to health.  It was a fast paced story which was just what I needed.  I've been struggling with the other eARC I'm reading right ...