#bookspin: Manic Pixie Dream Earl by Jenny Holiday
#doublebookspin: They Poisoned the World by Mariah Blake

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I managed two bingos in May.

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

It was easy to pick The Incandescent as my May pick, since it has a huge standout for me. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being my favorite read of the year.

#readingbracket2024 #bookbracket2024 @CSeydel

June list

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I managed a bingo this month!

#ispybingo @thearomaofbooks

5/5

If you work at a magical boarding school, preventing demonic incursions is just part of the job, and Doctor Walden is extremely good at her job, despite her own past experience with demonic incursions.

I loved this book. I thought the perspective of a magical school from a teacher was incredible. I also loved the magic system within the book and the way it intertwined with everything. Overall, I loved the directions this book went in.

2.5/5

I had mixed feelings about this one, especially the lack of cw about the death of Heracles's children. The summary did mention the children die, but the way it happened was very upsetting, and the descriptions were worse than I expected. I almost put the book down. I kept reading, but even though there were great found family elements to the rest of story; it was never enough to make up for the upsetting source of Heracles's labors.

4.5/5

As a child, Yeva put on the armor of a dragon-slayer and did her best to forget what life was like before. But when she is sent to Quanbao, she is forced to face the part of herself she has tried to hide and the fact that she may not know all there is to know about dragons.

This was an incredible novella that packed in so much mythology and world-building
into a beautiful story about suppressing self for misplaced loyalty and duty.

4/5

Kat is just a legionnaire, not one of the nobles who manage to defeat the Demon Lord. But in the aftermath, Kat has to navigate the attention of the prince who suspects the war isn't over and the romance she began with her battle partner, when they both assumed they would die in battle.

I loved how this book took a common fantasy story line and told it from the perspective of one of the soldiers, rather than one of the stereotypical heroes.

ebook: Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell
audiobook: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

Molly and Robin are both hoping to stay in the Bed and Breakfast they ran together before they split up, but they certainly weren't hoping to stay there with each other. Now they have a chance to find some closure, actually get divorced, and sell their B&B.

Parts of the romance felt a little rushed, but I enjoyed the bed and breakfast setting, and I thought the book really brought Eureka Springs to life on the page.

#netgalley

4.5/5

The perspective of a livesuit solider, on the other side of an endless and timeless war.

I'm really enjoying this series. There are definitely a lot of horror elements to the series and the aliens.

e-book: A Legionnaire's Guide to Love and Peace by Emily Skrutskie
audiobook: Once Upon You and Me by Timothy Janovsky

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

IF YOU‘D TOLD ME AT any point in the past seven years that I‘d wind up back in Eureka Springs, I‘d have laughed in your face. There are far too many ghosts in that town—not just the “real” ones tourists pay to hear about, but personal ones too.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

2/5

Dacian empath, Malina, is captured in the aftermath of battle where she failed to protect her Celtic adopted family and taken as a slave by the Roman general and dragon shifter, Julianus.

The combination of relationship dynamic and power imbalance between Malina and Julianus with the ancient Roman inspired system of slavery, was too off-putting for me, and I just couldn't get past it. It was also a darker romance than I had expected.

e-book: Bed and Breakup by Susie Dumond
audiobook: Firebird by Juliette Cross

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4.5/5

As bad as I thought Facebook (and social media as a whole) is, it's worse. This was a fairly demoralizing read, but I think it was good to get insight into some of the inner-workings of Facebook.

4/5

Davi succeeded in becoming the Dark Lord, but now she has to figured out how to break out of the time loop she's been trapped in and remember that if she ends the time loop, death will count.

I thought as Davi was forced to grapple with death becoming permanent, she became a more interesting and less callous character. I thought it was a very entertaining read, and I enjoyed it even more than the first book.

#netgalley

#bookspin: Bed and Breakup by Susie Dumond
#doublebookspin: Firebird by Juliette Cross

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

One bingo in April

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Best read of April: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

May list

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

4.5/5

Melissa recounts her own experience with isolation as a mom and the strategies both she, and others she knows, to build more connection. She acknowledges both how hard it is for moms to do this work as well as how necessary it is. I thought there were a lot of good ideas for slowly beginning to reduce isolation and build connection, and she acknowledges that it is hard work.

#netgalley

e-book: Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler
audiobook: I Was Told There'd Be a Village by Melissa Wirt

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

Nic just moved back to Seattle in the hope she can begin a relationship with best friend Skylar, only to find out Skylar is moving to Fiji. She and Kira, the friend Skylar made while Nic was in grad school, decide to work together to show Skylar that moving to Fiji is a bad idea. But as they spend more time together, they become closer as they learn more about each other and Skylar's reason for moving.

#netgalley

“I have never wanted to set a fire so badly in my life.“

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

4.5/5

On a distant planet, in the far future, humanity is conquered by aliens and a group of researchers are captured and forced to prove humanity's usefulness. I liked all the different perspectives throughout the book, particularly the alien perspectives. Some part of the book felt like sci-fi horror for me. I didn't figure out the bigger twist of the series until after I finished reading, but I am excited to see where it goes.

#netgalley

e-book: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey
audiobook: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

I think I'm on track to finish both this weekend.
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

“You ask how many ages had the Carryx been fighting the long war? That is a meaningless question.“

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

4/5

The story follows three women trapped in in the sieged Aymar castle as it becomes clear that the food will soon run out, until four apparent saints arrive who bring nightmares instead of miracles.

It's a very gruesome horror novel, but I couldn't put it down. I liked the mixing of the religious elements, the medieval elements, the fantasy fae elements, and the horror elements and how they all worked together.

#netgalley

print: The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
audiobook: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4.5/5

A wonderfully written book full of humor and grief about the strength of friendship beyond loss and tragedy. The dying artist C. Jat sells everything he owns to buy back his first painting, and then gives it away to a teenager he just met, named Louisa, which leads her on a journey to understand what lead the artist to create the painting.

#netgalley

e-book: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
audiobook: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

#bookspin: The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy
#doublebookspin: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

April #bookspin list

#doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I took a break from social media this month (except litsy because I don't count litsy), and it turns out that was the only thing standing between me and reading 25 books 😅. My first time ever blacking out a bookspin bingo board.

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

5/5

This was such an incredible book. While the original story is about revolution and the end of the Hunger Games, and Songbird and Snakes was about how the games became what they were, this book was really about the games as propaganda and gave a much better understand of how the games and the manipulations of the capital worked. Even knowing how the story ends, it's a great read.

3/5

Ronan Reed is new to New Orleans, and his bad reputation has followed him, but that can't stop the attraction growing between himself and Celine Cruz, even if her over-protective family isn't a fan.

The external stakes in this book felt a lot lower than those in the books in the Stay a Spell series, but it was a still a fun paranormal romance, and it is fun to return to some favorite characters.

#netgalley

4/5

I really enjoyed this collection of non-fiction vignettes about people and moments in history mostly between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. I found the stories to be beautifully written and very moving. I can't pick a standout because they were were all so unique and emotional. I wasn't familiar with The Memory Palace podcast before reading this book, but I didn't feel that I needed to be in order to enjoy it.

#netgalley

ebook: The Memory Palace by Nate DiMeo
audiobook: My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

This was an incredibly well written, incredibly disturbing historical horror novel. Told through journal Arthur Beaucarne wrote in 1912 that was found and transcribed by his great great granddaughter in 2012. Arthur records a series of interviews with Good Stab who describes his transformation into a vampire.

The old fashioned language made it a little difficult to get into the early chapters, but the story pulled me in.

#netgalley

audiobook: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
print: Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4/5

Poseidon has an enemy fleet in his waters and Icarus as his captive. Icarus knows his best chance of survival is to make Poseidon feel something for him, but neither expect the true relationship that begins to form as the uncover each other's vulnerabilities.

I thought this dig a great job of balancing the main relationship with setting up for Zeus and Hera's book next.
#netgalley

4/5

Dorothy gets abducted onto an alien planet after a nearly fatal lion attack along with the now talking lion. Now she's dealing with dinosaurs, ice age creatures, and the two Aliens who have fallen for her.

I loved the concept of an Alien world created by underfunded researchers who did less than the bare minimum to learn about humans. It's so funny, and I hope to read more in this series.

5/5

This is my favorite Ali Hazelwood read yet. I loved Scarlet and her struggle with her collegiate diving career after a devastating injury, her growing friendship with diving captain Pen, and her new relationship with Pen's ex, Lukas. I also loved the cameos from Olive Smith and Adam Carlson from The Love Hypothesis

4/5

In a post-apocalyptic world after climate change destroys civilization, a woman keeps a secret journal in the mysterious and brutal Sacred Sisterhood.

The writing is brutally evocative of the end of the world. The horror and narrators rushed secrecy permeate every line. It was an unsettling read that will stick with me.

So many content warnings on this one.

#netgalley

#ebook: Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert
#audiobook: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

4.5/5

This is more of a sequel with other characters than a spin-off. I felt like there was a lot of setup in this book, but I felt like the payoff at the end of the book was good, and I'm excited to read more about all the unanswered questions. I wasn't sure how a spin-off series could raise the stakes from Consort of Fire and Queen of Dreams, but I thought the reveals at the end of the book did a good job of achieving that.

#netgalley

4/5

I read A Wizard of Earthsea when I was a child and didn't remember much of the story, so this was a wonderful way to be reintroduced to the book. The art is really beautiful, and I thought both the art and the dialogue that was brought in did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life while maintaining the same mood of the original book.

#netgalley

5/5

The Federation is ruled by The President, who thanks to technology will never die. The West is under the rule of AI MPs who haven't changed anything. On the brink of the world either being destroyed or changed, many lives are intertwined.

This is an incredible dystopian novel imaging a techno-authoritarian future that considers what is good and what is evil and what does it mean to act. It is a complicated story, and I could not put it down.