Welcome to Litsy!

If you bleed red, you‘re destined for servitude. If you bleed gold, you‘re destined for death. In The Gilded Ones, 16 year old Deka goes through the purity bleed and is found to be a demon. Whisked away to a world of death shrieks, violence, and found family, she has to learn her true power or die (multiple times) trying. This is a YA but I do think the concepts were on the darker side. Check triggers for this one! 3.5/5

I could not believe how beautifully a book could be written with this kind of devastating content. It's definitely worth the read.

Diving into this trilogy, I hope I love it enough to get to book 3, which comes out next month.

Very good.

At first I was not too happy with the way the story was going but once the main plot began I fell very much in love with this book. It‘s an amazing transformation story and I‘m so happy I stuck with it.

This was sooo much better than I anticipated! Really a powerfully feminist book!

Started this one yesterday and am already hooked. Is it fate that I read one feminist fantasy book right after another?

This was so good!! Action packed and a bit of a twist on the warrior chosen ones trope. It is YA. I thought it was creative and the characters were likable and mature but not in an unrealistic way.

This week's reading forecast I am already half through Gilded Ones. So good!!
I have 7 Killings on audio.

Picked from my personal #blindbookdate collection, THE GILDED ONES has been amazing so far. Couldn‘t put it down and read half of it in a sitting. Loving the surprise and mystery of my blind books

This book was amazing 👏 truly gold 👏 I didn't want to put it down, and when I absolutely had too it was always on my mind.

The first book on my TBR list is this beauty of a book. Now I have to hide in my book corner to get any reading done before my tiny humans find me. Happy Reading :)

An adventurous fantasy with a feminist heroine that was hard to put down.

Thank you so much for my spectacular #basicwitchswap box Amy!! ✨💜 I love all the books and treats! The stickers and paper are so fun!! The socks so cozy! I already strung up the pumpkin lights and drank some hot apple cider out of the ouija mug! Everything is purrfect! Even Link thinks so! 🧡

I really enjoyed this ya book! It‘s a fantasy and reads at a good pace for me. I was left enthralled with the world and the characters, I kept wanting to read more. My one complaint is a felt that the love interest was very one dimensional, I would have enjoyed him having more personality or just something more. Overall I really enjoyed this and highly recommend!

Wow! This book had it ALL for me. Great characters, interesting and mysterious plot, fast paced and great writing. This was hard to put down. As soon as I finished I had to buy the second book on my kindle because I needed more!

This is a powerful book. About girls being told they‘re demons. Half-monsters. Because they bleed gold. Through the course of being trained as unkillable soldiers, go against the monsters worse then them. Only to find that the empire -who they fight for- is the one who is not as it seems.
Dark, violence of the unforgiving. Yet also shows the truth in the pain girls face in the world. Final 20 or so pages throws the whole book upside down. Good

Picture from Labor Day, for todays Read a Book day.
This fascinating story is of girls born decedents of demons. Fighting those demons as the emperor demands. Deka finds herself even more odd than the other girls who bleed gold. She has an affinity over the demons. I agree with other reviews there‘s a lot of violence for a YA book. But not particularly more than I‘ve seen in other books where you fight monsters. Fast paced

Thank you for the tag @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

1. Gilded Ones
2. Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
3. Real Men Knit

I really enjoyed these books. I would recommend - these books are gateways to other amazing series. If it wasn‘t for for these books I wouldn‘t have been able to stumble upon others based if you read this, read this. Have fun down the rabbit hole. #littenswanttoknow

Liked the world building and character building in this YA novel. Enjoyed watching Deka evolve into something new. Great twist about who the real enemy is as well. Definitely an action packed adventure.

Are we girls, or are we Demons? Are we going to DIE, or are we going to SURVIVE

4.5 out of 5

I really liked this! I love the girl power. There are lots of feels in the book; some of it, the abuse toward women/girls, is frustrating and hard to read. But the overall theme of women who are powerful being themselves is awesome and uplifting. Excited to read the sequel!

May reads read.

Lots of action. I would rate this as a book series to borrow from the library.

New books!

I really enjoyed this YA fantasy. The world building and mythology were well done with strong characters.

The way women were treated in the society angered me, but that was part of the story so I tried to not let it bother me too much.

There's a great twist at the end and I can't wait to see where the story goes next.

#SeriesRead2022 @TheSpineView

This was SO GOOD!! An extra thanks to @Chelleo who sent me this one in this year #BlitsySwap ✌🏽 this book got me out of a slump so I‘m super happy AAAND as a bonus, the sequel is abt to drop!!! I can‘t wait :)

Right on time, got my package for the #Blitsy swap!!! Thank you sm for making sure I got these lovely pieces @Chelleo i almost couldn‘t open them bc the wrapping paper was so gorgeous!! I‘ll make an additional post reporting all the Black magic that‘s inside 👀✨

An amazing #blitsyswap package from @Endowarrior21 😍 Two fantasy books from my TBR. I cannot get over these gorgeous covers, especially the tagged which I‘ve been eyeing for so long — it‘s even more beautiful in person. Plus a beautiful bookmark, glittery ornaments & sticky page flags. My favorite is the body butter which smells amazing (eucalyptus mint scented) and is perfect for me. Thank you Jessi for such thoughtful gifts! #bhms

New Display! I have gotten a lot of astrology sign book requests, and while we are waiting to order those nonfiction, Book Riot and Upper Case YA on Instagram had great fiction book recs to pair with each sign! I couldn‘t display them all- I only displayed books we have currently in our system 💙

#DayOne📖
Wow, such a strong start! 50 pages in and I'm already so excited 😂

Wow wow wow! I couldn't put it down! Finished all 400+ pages in less then 10 days. Safe to say my love of reading has been restored! The snowy weather was so enjoyable as I curled up with my tea and became immersed in the world of Otera.

#januaryreads #readingisfun #fictionreads #2022read

Came across this booknat the library and it really piqued my interest! Although it doesn't match any of my challenges I'm excited to start off 2022 with a book that seems super fascinating. #backintoreading #reading2022 #ilovetoread

I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 342.
#bookstoread
#tbrpile
#bookstagram

Rating: 3.5 🌟

A promising YA fantasy that tells of Deka as she works to discover her true self and the truth about those around her. Overall, I loved the developing friendships as they were so genuine and authentic. While not the most spectacular YA fantasy, I still enjoyed it and am convinced to continue the series 📖❤️

Loving this book so much right now.

Mother/son book group resumes! I loved the author‘s afterword “At it‘s heart, the book is an examination of patriarchy. How does it form? What supports it? How do women survive under it?” All wrapped up in a great, fast-paced story. Whilst this did feel very much a YA book I appreciate I‘m not the target audience, and I still enjoyed it. My 14 year old loved it and if I‘d read it at 14 I have no doubts I‘d have loved it too.

I wanted to love this but found it predictable and was mostly a little bored. The pluses are that it has a great female empowerment theme and the main character is very appealing. But it just doesn‘t quite get there. And the cover, while gorgeous, actually isn‘t accurate to the story, which is a little annoying.

Sadly, the poor writing = so-so rating. The world building is fantastic, I ❤️ the author‘s commentary on religion, but a lot of the book fell flat. Deka is impure & is given a chance at salvation through service & combat for the emperor. She & and the other impure girls must fight beasts, who she has strange powers over. Are they really beasts and can she trust anyone? You can totally predict this if you‘ve read books before. 3/5 stars.

I am uncertain. It was well-written and a good story overall. I am not a big fantasy person. This one was okay once I got my mind around the ‘world‘. Also it was a bit twisty, which I appreciate as I love mysteries and thrillers. I don‘t know though. Overall it was okay considering it is not my usual genre. A definite women‘s empowerment story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A weekend away meant less reading, but that is no reflection on this ferocious book! A fierce and determined heroine on a voyage of discovery, a world of magics and monsters, a patriarchy that needs overthrowing—it all melds together into a fabulous tale that reads like the birth of a legend. I LOVED it—found it beautiful to read and incisively pertinent to the real world.

📣📣📣 Special announcement!!!! 📣📣📣
Next month we will hosting the
💥3rd Annual MBC Readathon💥
to celebrate the groups birthday!!🎉🥳🎉
This is our biggest giveaway of the year!😱
Let us know if you plan on joining us!! Have you participated in our other readathons?
This will take place across social media!!! 💗
(Instagram, Litsy, and Facebook)
Clear your calendars and build your tbrs!! We are going to have so much fun!💚💚💚

"Are we girls or are we demons?"

The worldbuilding was fantastic. Namina really captured how the different cultures within the world interacted. An overall theme of the book was religion and this religion was very thought out.
I was disappointed with the writing style and pacing of the novel. The writing itself seemed too simplistic. In addition, the pacing was fast.
Plus, Keita was just too perfect to seem like a real character.

Way too bloody/violent for my taste, this story captures you from the very first, sentence/paragraph. A mythical overcoming of the violence done to women and the irrational anger against them. You will love the characters.

What a FANTASTIC read! The Gilded Ones is bold, powerful and utterly gripping. The world that Namina Forna has created is so deeply compelling! It‘s a book that comes alive in your mind, and when reading it I could feel the sadness, heartache, joy, pride felt by the characters! A definite page Turner.

Thank you @Mynameisacolour for the #litsylovesummerswap package. The wrapping paper was so colorful. All the books have been on my list for some time. The hot cocoa looks delicious, and the pens are needed. I will use the notecards for writing, the tags for marking my collection of non-fiction book, and the bookmark is adorable. I also love tigers so the not card is perfect. Thank you again ☺️☺️ #llss