Recent, current, and future reads | WWW Wednesday [1-17-24]

January 17, 2024 by louisereads ♥ 1 Comment

This is a tag hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words that asks us to answer the three Ws:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Happy Wednesday! This has been a stressful week (hence the lack of posts), so I haven’t done a TON of reading since I last updated. I had an important work meeting that I was stressed about and I’ve also been preparing for my first professional conference this weekend! And on top of that, my old lady dog got a back injury 😦 so I’ve been spending a lot of time cuddling her and trying to help her feel better. But! I have been reading every day, so I feel pretty good about that despite everything else that has come up!

I’m still listening to I’m Glad My Mom Died! I’ve been working through it during my workouts, so I’m slowly but surely getting there. This is a tough read! I’ve also been reading Heir of Fire on my Kindle which is so amazing. It’s a little slower than Crown of Midnight, but still so amazing. I’m getting a lot more out of my read than I did the first time.

The last book I finished was Ruthless Vows! What an amazing duology this was. I cannot recommend it enough. I need to look into more of Rebecca Ross’s books–her writing is so gorgeous!

So I’m definitely going to keep moving through the TOG series with Queen of Shadows. Without a doubt. But, I’ve also been wanting to pick up an easy contemporary romance. I’ve been seeing a lot of Abby Jimenez recently, and I’ve only read one of her books which I liked enough. Should I try more of hers? I’m not sure!

What are you currently reading? Any cute contemporary romance suggestions?

Most anticipated book releases for the first half of 2024 | Top Ten Tuesday [1-9-24]

January 9, 2024January 9, 2024 by louisereads ♥ 1 Comment

Happy Tuesday! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl) is most anticipated releases for the first half of 2024! This is the first Top Ten Tuesday I’ve done since returning to book blogging, and I’m super excited about it. This is a good one for me because I’m just now throwing myself back into the bookish world after a long hiatus, so I need to catch myself up on everything releasing this year!

BRIDE BY ALI HAZELWOOD

Release date: February 6th

Oh my god. Ali Hazelwood and vampires???? When I learned about this one, I honest to god yelled. I have such high hopes for this one. Ali Hazelwood is my absolute favorite. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’ll read your grocery lists, Ali!!!

FUNNY STORY BY EMILY HENRY

Release date: April 23rd

Everyone knows by now that Emily Henry is the contemporary romance queen. I’ve read a lot of romance authors, tried to read their entire list of works, but no one has a portfolio as excellent as Emily Henry’s. Maybe Sarah Dessen, but Sarah Dessen is kind of a legend in that way. I digress. I have no doubts this book will be amazing.

A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT BY ALLISON SAFT

Release date: January 2nd

This one is fortunately already out! I don’t know too much about it aside from what I’ve seen on others’ blogs, but give me a good fantasy romance and I’ll read it. I do not need to know anything else, thank you.

NOT IN LOVE BY ALI HAZELWOOD

Release date: June 11th

I don’t need to go on my Ali Hazelwood spiel again, but just know that this is coming out in June and when it comes out, I will be BUSY.

SO LET THEM BURN BY KAMILAH COLE

Release date: January 16th

I only learned about this one recently, but it’s a Jamaican-inspired queer fantasy with dragons. Guys. This sounds incredible. And that cover?? SO gorgeous.

FAEBOUND BY SAARA EL-ARIFI

Release date: January 18th

ANOTHER queer fantasy coming out!! I don’t know much about this one, but the vibes are there. And another sexy cover. Good work, team.

THE POISONS WE DRINK BY BETHANY BAPTISTE

Release date: March 5th

I haven’t read a good urban fantasy in a reeeeally long time. Witches and illegal love potions? Say less. I’m there.

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE BY S. T. GIBSON

Release date: February 13th

I’m not usually super into dark academia, but this one is lesbians in a Massachusetts college. It may as well be about my college experience, except just slightly more cult-y. This one sounds incredible.

A FATE INKED IN BLOOD BY DANIELLE L. JENSEN

Release date: February 27th

Forbidden fantasy romance. This one sounds so unbelievably hot. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but they’re already so high. Please don’t disappoint, Danielle!!

LORE OF THE WILDS BY ANALEIGH SBRANA

Release date: February 27th

I’m going to be honest, I saw the words romantasy, library, and fae in the synopsis for this one, and that was enough for me. It seems like it might also have a bit of enemies-to-lovers in it. I’m sold. I’m there.

What books are you looking forward to releasing in the first half of 2024?

A hot fantasy that I enjoyed enough | The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

January 7, 2024 by louisereads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

This one is really different from what I expected out of a fantasy romance, which is undoubtedly a good thing. It was way darker, for one thing, and didn’t rely on a commanding all-powerful vampire as the heroine’s lifeline. I think the worst thing a story of this genre can do is have bland characters with zero chemistry, and that is absolutely not this book. I very unexpectedly fell in love with Raihn, who, despite how he is described in the synopsis, really wasn’t an aggressive man at all. The scenes between him and Oraya were actually really hot. Again, chemistry and characters are the most important to me in any kind of romance.

Unfortunately, the remaining elements of the story fell a little flat for me. I wanted just a bit more world building and maybe more insight into both Oraya and Vincent’s character. The pacing was a little off for me, too. I think the story would have really benefitted from throwing us right into the Kejari, with some backtracking to fill in Oraya’s history with Vincent. I would have loved to understand the history of the different vampires and why they are against each other.

I should reiterate that this story really nailed what I needed it to–the romance and character building was impeccable. It just could have been that much better with some added detail and fixed pacing. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the second book yet to finish the duology, but I’m leaning toward yes just to see how Oraya and Raihn’s relationship plays out.

Have you read this series? Should I continue on with it?

Goodreads | Bookshop | StoryGraph

A gorgeous story of the unrelenting cycles of nature | Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

January 4, 2024January 4, 2024 by louisereads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.

From her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin, Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. She is caught off-guard by a young hunter who invades her most private spaces and confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer’s wife, finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly feuding neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities of a future neither of them expected.

Over the course of one humid summer, these characters find their connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they share a place.

This was my first Barbara Kingsolver novel, and it certainly will not be my last. I can never be sure about popular literary fiction; is it a good novel or just a novel that a bunch of pretentious people like to project onto? This one is the former. Kingsolver has a way of putting you right in the heart of an Appalachian summer even if there’s snow falling outside your window. Her descriptive imagery is so fresh and powerful, and it’s what really drew me in as I started this one. If it had been a novel with only descriptions of nature, that would be fine by me. Not only does she do this well, but she also has a way of characterizing the main actors in a way that is so real and raw. I had no hope for any of the characters to go through a metamorphosis at the start, yet they did in the most empowering way. There wasn’t one character whom I couldn’t find something within to empathize with.

In this novel, Kingsolver very expertly weaves a web of humans and nature, putting us back into our place in the “wild” world. It would be very easy to trivialize human existence in the grand scheme of the natural world, but with this, she really puts the emphasis on every single part of the connections living things have to one another. In this way, she really does glorify human life and mortality, along with every other life on the planet.

I spent the last 60 pages of this novel feeling so giddy and excited to be part of this world, something that has been hard to find with all the death and evil that surround human existence right now. It really is a glorious read from start to finish. I cannot recommend this enough, and I certainly need to read more of her work.

Goodreads | Bookshop

Have you read any Barabara Kingsolver? Which of hers should I read next?

Two Romance Reviews | Elizabeth O’Roark Reviews

January 1, 2024 by louisereads ♥ 1 Comment

A Deal with the Devil:

Hayes Flynn is an arrogant jerk known best for his scotch habit and the way he spreads his British “charm” all over Hollywood, never with the same woman twice.

He’s the last person I want to work for, except he has a face I can’t look away from, and the longer we’re together, the harder he is to hate. Because under that smug exterior is a heart he doesn’t want to show—one that was badly broken a decade earlier.

Waking Olivia:

A failing farm.
His father’s debt.
And a struggling college track team.
Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new transfer student.

A smart mouth.
A strong right hook.
And a secret that could destroy her.
Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a past she can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track coach she can never seem to please.
Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to save her.
And determined to resist an attraction that could destroy them both.

Ok, I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I found a new favorite romance author. I’ve been struggling with romance recently, finding the writing often very immature and the character development clunky and unnatural. I started with Waking Olivia which I enjoyed a lot! The characters didn’t feel forced, and Olivia and Will actually had chemistry. I was also interested in the plot and what Olivia wasn’t remembering. The thing that will really trip me up while reading a romance is a dual POV. I’ve said this before. I KNOW every romance reader seems to absolutely adore a POV from both love interests, but it really takes away from the story for me. I don’t want to know how the other person feels! I want to be able to guess through their actions as if I were the main character myself. Maybe that’s a bit too self-insert of me, but I really love the suspense and slow burn of not knowing what the other love interest’s intentions are. I know the two will end up together in the end, but I don’t want to have all the answers right away. Regardless, I evidently enjoyed this one enough to pick up another by O’Roark, and this is where she really shines, in my opinion.

I was really wary going into A Deal with the Devil. I had no idea how O’Roark was going to make me fall in love with a plastic surgeon of all people, but my god, she did it. I had to overlook the wardrobe (men who love to wear suits all the time are a huge ick, and I DON’T think they look better in them than in casual wear). This was such a sweet romance. I love a man who knows he’s not good enough for the woman he’s in love with. The chemistry between Tali and Hayes was so hot, and it felt so natural for these two to get as close as they did. I loved this book, and I’m honestly sad to have finished it. It helps that this one was a singular POV, too.

Waking Olivia

Links:

Goodreads | Amazon

A Deal with the Devil

Links:

Goodreads | Amazon

How do you feel about dual POVs in romance books?

BPD, finishing grad school, attention issues, and more! | 2024 Wrap-Up

December 31, 2023 by louisereads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

It has been a whole year since I last wrote on this blog. Lots of emotions come up when I think of this: shame, grief, frustration, tiredness. Maybe more that I can’t think of (thank you to my new therapist, Rachael, for making me identify my emotions in literally any scenario). I was so excited when I started this whole thing, and I told myself I needed to be consistent lest it be another project that gets left behind. However, that is exactly what happened. I do have my excuses, though. This year, I finished grad school and became a professional librarian at a college! I was also diagnosed with ADHD and likely BPD (still working on this one). Things happened in my life this year that really kicked these two disorders into overdrive, and to be honest, I spent a lot of time watching my life from the outside, doing what I needed to do to stay on the path I needed without putting too much of myself into it. This is all to say that while I’m not happy with myself for letting this fall to the wayside, I give grace to myself knowing that I have the tools now to get where I want to be.

With all that going on in my life, I also just let social media get the best of me. The feelings of emptiness I felt were combatted with endless scrolling on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. I spent so much time wasting my time that I only read 18 books this year (19 if I finish the romance I’m reading later). I’m not one for New Years Resolutions (why wait until a new year to try to change, right?) But now that I have some free time off from work this week, it’s easier to see exactly how I want to be using the rest of my time going forward. I want this to be a space for me to talk about books and my life as a librarian. It’s what I originally intended to do with this blog, but I really want to commit to it this time. I think I have the tools and the time now. I think I can.

Not everything was bad this year, though! I got engaged, my fiancé and I adopted the sweetest senior dog, I love my job, and we moved into a new house! This was a scary year for me mentally, but I am very lucky to have the life I do, and I am excited to be able to fully enjoy it.

I won’t dwell on the amount of books I read (it’s not a competition anyway!!!), but I will share my favorites in no particular order from this year. Hopefully it will inspire my reading for 2024.

THE MERCIES BY KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

Lesbians, 17th century Norway, witchcraft . . . what else could you need? That’s really all you need to know about this one.

FOURTH WING BY REBECCA YARROS

Unless you’ve been cut off from the book community for the last year, you know about this one. I sent my fiancé out for the sequel this year, and he was shocked by the amount of people who came up to him in the Barnes & Noble so excited for him to read it. This one is so hot. And the plot is good too, I GUESS 😉

LOVE, THEORETICALLY BY ALI HAZLEWOOD

I would read this woman’s grocery lists. I think I’ve said that before, too, but I doubly mean it now. I just love anything women in STEM so add in a hot romance–it’s like it was written just for me. If you like romance and haven’t read her yet, what the fuck are you doing?!?