I stuck with this because the audiobook narrator was really good. If I was reading this, I would have given up.

The first few chapters were rough. It was clumsy and awkward. Lots of concepts which weren't fully explained. World building in general was poor.

In general the plot was predictable but that wasn't the point. This is a bodyguard slow burn romance in fantasy clothing. I wanted a political fantasy with a romance subplot.

This is a very accessible book for people learning about ADHD and autism. It's casual, there's a lot of Internet speak, ancestors, and it's very supportive.

It's a validating read if you are struggling with a diagnosis or starting to see you might be neurodivergent.

That's the extent of it. There's nothing new, or actionable. It was affirming.

This was a bit too kitsch and cosy for me. It was well written and short! Only 70 pages.

I wonder if this was supposed to be a series vibing off Leverage (TV). There's a lot of unnecessary characters introduced.

It's not awful, it's just a bit boring.

This has been on my #ReadYourKindle list for ages @CBee

Thank you to everyone that gave their feedback on #QueerBC It's been really useful reading it all

I'm going to include more information about the authors and more reminders of the monthly authors. It's easy to lose track when everything is a month in advance.

There were several requests for an end of month discussion or check in post. How you enjoyed the author etc.

⬇️

Very behind on my #ReadingBracket2025

As much as I love Assassin's Apprentice, I went with SVSSS as my favourite because of how much joy it brought me

No wild cards yet. I think I'm going to leave them until Jun/Dec and pick a book that has stuck with me, made an impact etc but maybe wasn't my favourite that month

I wasn't very consistent this month, I either read nothing or loads.

It wasn't a great month physically, emotionally or mentally. I think I read a bit more to cope with that and since I have now time when I was ill

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

One outstanding book this month and several meh books

I hit my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin and at least one #Roll100 pick

I owned everything except Running Close to the Wind which was a library book and I donated the Heroes of Olympus books

I did buy the Trials of Apollo series but that will likely also be donated when I read it. My library doesn‘t have the entire series

#2025stats

I'm sticking with categories and a few named books for #BookSpinBingo This seems to work best for me at the moment

@TheAromaofBooks

This was an absolute delight of a book with unbridled feral energy. My new comfort read.

I cannot recommend the audiobook enough. The voices are amazing and the narrator gives Avra the right amount of manic, racoon energy that brings him to life.

Voting for #QueerBC May's author!

Vote here: https://forms.gle/jU6pQiU5659bLsqr9

April's author is Alan Hollinghurst whose written several novels, poetry collections, and short stories which gives you a lot to pick from

If you are on Storygraph and want to join the book club, you can do that here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_clubs/ec1d5a86-5de9-4315-a128-fcab4d27c31d

Suggest authors here: https://forms.gle/nLwAy72Zufi4brty6

April is National Poetry Month and #QueerBC has voted to read the works of Ocean Vuong!

A Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist, his poems often explore transformation, desire, and violent loss

We also voted on several individual poems. The two favourite poems;

April's book for #RiordanverseReadalong is House of Hades!

It is the penultimate book of the Heroes of Olympus series

@mom2bugnbee @LitsyEvents

#RealmofElderlings book is Royal Assassin. Aim is to have this I've read by the end of April and then move on to the last book in the Farseer Trilogy

How is everyone finding it? I haven't started my re-read yet 🤣

It's nearly April! How are we all getting on with #GottaCatchemAll

Congratulations to @PuddleJumper and @Yuki_Onna for catching their first Pokémon!

Stuffed full of cold and unable to breath so decided to try an audiobook. I'm hoping the unbridled feral goblin energy this book is giving isn't my fever because it's delightful

My #Roll100 for April and can't say I'm interested in any of them 😂

Death as Fine Art is an ARC I picked up without knowing it was a series

Blood of Elves ... I want to, just not at the moment

Serpent & Dove is too big!

Spring is desperately trying to emerge here so I went with some yellow, green dice for April‘s #Roll100

Roll 1 = 24
Roll 2 = 36
Roll 3 = 16

Tag me if you want to share what you are reading!

Template and trackers are available in the GDrive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nSSxkd6v2jAZmu_J-KXOPmNijsyt22vFUa74xU43...

Time to pick the poet and poems for April‘s National Poetry Month #QueerBC

Pick the poet you want to read in April and 2 of your favourite poems from the list
Voting will end Sunday 30th March

Vote here: https://forms.gle/9fEvsgB4o7zVqNQY6

I've been avoiding things for days because everything is getting a bit too much so it's time for some #BodyDoubleReadathon

I find knowing other people are also doing things at the same time as me, or imagining people in the room with me reading or whatever really helps me stay on task

It'll run noon-noon and you can make it what you want. I have been toying with making a Discord group so there's some socialisation. I'm not fussed either way

Oo nearly forgot about this! Thanks for everyone participating on Litsy, you reminded me.

It runs from March 21-31. Instagram has some amazing recommendations.

Tagging the #QueerBC group in case you want to join as well

I read the majority of this book in the bath with a Poseidon candle that smelt of sea, salt, and shipwrecks. It felt fitting.

This was a filler book. Not terrible, not great, moved the plot along and positioned the characters.

#RiordanverseReadalong

Illumicrate are releasing a special edition of the Farseer Trilogy

Pre-sales are available to subscribers from May 13. Then non subscribers can purchase from May 15.

£90 for the set

They are beautiful! #RealmofElderlings

I've caught up! I'm about half way through this and enjoying it so far. I like some characters way more than others. Jason is still boring. Riordan is still weird about Aphrodite and femininity.

#RiordanverseReadalong

April we'll be reading The House of Hades. Hopefully more Nico 🤣

@mom2bugnbee

#QueerBC April‘s author is Alan Hollinghurst! This is an author I‘m aware of but never read anything by them. I think I have The Line of Beauty haunting my shelves somewhere

Have you read this author before? Drop any recommendations in the comments

Don‘t forget March‘s author is Bushra Rehman. There is still loads of March left! How are we all getting on?

⬇

I don't buy new new books anymore. I'll always opt for second hand or from the library which is what I intended to do with the Trails of Apollo books but I found the book set cheaper new than second hand.

Won't get to these until next year with #RiordanverseReadalong I'm excited though

A really intriguing premise that wasn't executed well

January #ReadingSnake I tried this last year and gave up. This year I've made the stripes smaller and separated them with a band

Each band is a book. I'm using different colours for different genres. Once it's all done I'll stuff it and sew it up

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii It was my birthday on Monday so it's been a good week!

1. Two Point Museum, amazing game
2. Millie's cookie cake, best thing in the world. I ignore my intolerances to get one for my birthday
3. Watching video essays by Bob Wess on bisexual Dean Winchester from Supernatural. Really interesting putting the show in a real world context regarding sexual visibility
4 & 5. My beautiful, idiotic cats Ovid and FitzChivalry

I enjoyed this a lot more than the first one. I found the trio much more compelling and the storyline interesting.

There are still some issues. It got repetitive, Riordan has some weird issues around femininity, and there were some racist and fatphobic comments.

#RiordanverseReadalong

This is a really fun story. London based urban fantasy following two cupids as their love matches turn deadly.

I enjoyed how different the world and afterlife was, the characters were all engaging, the romance was an organic slow burn, and it was the right level of humour for me.

I have the final version and it still reads like a first draft. I wonder what the other version was like because this one still has pacing issues, typos, weird dialogue, and it's awkward to read.

It's very safe. Fake dating the bi hockey player because your shitty friends are trying to force you to date someone. But twist! You both have crushes on each other.

Someone watched Skam and thought they could do it in book form. It does not work.

I don't have the patience for toxic teenage friendship. There were too many characters, the MC had no personality, the relationship was forced and I was bored.

I might be in the minority but I wanted more d&d. With the title and the series name I was expecting more focus on the game or group of people brought together by it.

It did include that, but the majority of the book was them visiting each other's shops and talking. There's no tension, no plot, it's just a bit bland.

It's not a bad contemporary romance, it's just forgettable.

March #Roll100

March #BookSpinBingo

I would like to read the two Rick Riordan novels and keep making headway into my ARC backlog

@TheAromaofBooks

I don't think I've read a sapphic romance quite so centered around men before. It was odd, though that was the least of the issues.

It was very repetitive and neither character is likeable. There's some verbal abuse, biphobia (or what I'm interpreting as biphobia because lesbian with a preference for women … is a lesbian), physical assault, and some humiliation.

They should be running away from each other, not getting together.

Not as good as January. It was a busy and not great month, I was reading a couple of pages every day.

Good books this month though! That was positive

I also got Plus for my birthday 🤣

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

February has been a fairly crappy month in general 😅

I read my #DoubleSpin and read some of my ARC backlog

@TheAromaofBooks

February #2025Stats I'm saying the word search was my favourite book this month because I love word searches

Read 6 books off my shelf, I bought several books for work as they were very cheap second hand and I got 3 ARCs though didn't include them.

The 2 books I donated were ones off my shelf. It was the second and third in a series ... I didn't like the first one and I was never going to read the rest

I am ready! I might read the 1990s edition as I've cracked the spine and it's already well read

I want to read the Rick Riordan books. I might split it up because it is long. Read other books in-between rather than trying to read it all at once

#RealmofElderlings

The first ¾ of this book are very slow and then it speeds up at the end.

It's the recollections of a royal bastard starting from when he was very young. His memories become clearer as he becomes older, though not always.

Fitz is not a reliable narrator. Whether that is deliberate or because memories are fallible. It's interesting to grow alongside him and learn what he finds value in and the people and events that shaped him.

I've just fished this and I had fun. It isn't without faults but I thought the fun I had overcame that

Some of the pages were really low res resulting in pixelated text. Usually in word searches if you have multiple words e.g John Winchester then they are written without spaces. This one would include an extra letter between the words which was annoying.

It's not perfect but if you're a fan then it's a bit of fun.

April is National Poetry Month so #QueerBC is going to celebrate queer poets and poems

You can suggest 3 individual poems. These can be by queer authors or about queer experiences

Then suggest 1 poet and people can read anything they‘ve written

At the end we‘ll vote on which poet to read and then have a top 3 list of poems … maybe, not figured that out

Suggest here - https://forms.gle/W4AWJwPSr5qaJiJa9

I'll keep it open until March 23rd

Vote for April #QueerBC

Sorry, everything is going up early because I‘ve got my ADHD assessment this weekend and family in hospital and I just want it done so I don‘t have to think about it. I get things done early rather than late!

Vote here: https://forms.gle/86ZSy43E86TibPVN7

Royal Assassin is the second book in the Farseer Trilogy #RealmofElderlings

How is everyone feeling about the series so far?

I‘ve got about 50 pages left of Assassin‘s Apprentice will hopefully get it finished this week. I‘m excited and a little intimidated by the second book. Been an age since I‘ve read anything that long and I think it‘s going to hurt but also fuck yeah my favourite character!

It's book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus series for #RiordanverseReadalong

I am a little behind, haven't started book 2 but hoping to get both of these done in March

@mom2bugnbee @LitsyEvents

My March rolls for #Roll100

I'm going to focus on Natural Twenty and How Not to Get Eaten by an Owlbear. The other one sounds a bit heavy

Feb check in for #GottaCatchemAll

How are we all doing?

I've got some that I'm close to catching but beginning of the year is very scattered for me

#Roll100 March rolls are here! It's my birthday in March so I went with some of my favourite dice - skull ones (obviously), my big wooden ones, and part of the Odin's ravens set ... I can't remember which raven

Roll 1 = 51

Roll 2 = 9 or 90

Roll 3 = 74

What are you all reading?

I might get to Son of Neptune this week, I'm not sure. I'm trying to get my book club books read and then tackle ARCs and TBR reads. I want to get my NetGalley ratio to 80%

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks