#royal book review

[jessread-s]

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🐉✨Review:

A strong start to a romantasy series with endless potential!

“Fear the Flames” follows Elowen Atarah, an exiled princess, as she teams up with Cayden Veles, the feared Commander of Vareveth, to free her dragons and save her people. As forces beyond their control try to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes irresistible. 

The concept of this book immediately grasped my attention. It was the reluctant allies-to-lovers romance that drew me in further! Elowen and Cayden’s knife to the throat meet-cute put me in a chokehold and I was living for their banter. Their dynamic is truly incredible and the tension had my heart pounding.

Unfortunately, the pacing and aspects of the writing are what lost me. While Cayden fell first, he also fell very fast. Many readers might like this if they prefer instantaneous chemistry, but I tend to like books where the relationship development moves more slowly, so I did not enjoy how quick it felt. Much of their dialogue, aside from the banter, was also clunky and cringey at times. 

As far as the plot, the heist was the main focus, so I was a bit let down when it missed the mark. There was a lot of build-up surrounding it only for it to be done and over with so quickly. Nearly everything was executed perfectly without a hitch, so it just ended up being anticlimactic. 

Overall, I appreciate this book’s vision and really liked some of its elements despite its setbacks. I’m interested to see what direction Darling takes the next book now that the groundwork has been laid.

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[mediamatinees]

Smackdown Pen vs Reel Chapter Nine: Red, White & Royal Blue Continues to Be the Perfect Political Romance We Didn't Know We Needed

Content Warning: Red, White & Royal Blue contains discussions of homophobia, family drama played out in public and in private, brief discussions of racism and xenophobia, and trauma related to abandonment and familial death. It’s also a romcom but the angst was angsting. Reader/viewer discretion is advised. Spoilers for Red, White & Royal Blue ahead! At long last! Due to 2023’s entertainment…

[kazz-brekker]

people who enjoyed larys strong on this season of house of the dragon should also check out the shardlake books by cj sansom and the tv adaptation. the main character is not an evil adviser (sorry) but he's a disabled lawyer with scoliosis solving murders during the tudor dynasty and there's a lot of similar exploration of historical ableism and having to rely on your mind rather than your body when making your way up in the world. also they actually cast a disabled actor as the main character in the tv show which i appreciate.

[ebphonehome]

Can I just say that they are both ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT bottom bitches who are actually switches?

[repmet]

Ngl, despite my apprehension (i.e. I'm old and cynical), I'm interested to see what they do with the Red, White & Royal Blue sequel partly since I know in the book bonus chapter, Henry gives up his title - I haven't actually read it so idk if he's actually described as 'abdicating' or fandom just decided to use that term (which is not exactly correct).

But the book lacks a lot of accuracy around the British Royal family where as the movie put in a bit more effort (e.g. Henry's Mum being Duchess of Edinburgh not Princess of Wales) and since in the United Kingdom, Henry can't step out of the line of succession without an Act of Parliament which isn't an insignificant thing, I wonder if the movie will focus on that or if it will gloss over it or just go in a brand new direction entirely for a new audience who aren't familiar with the book.

Personally, I hope for the latter partially because the parallels to certain real life royals would get distracting but mostly because I'd love to see Henry use the position he once felt suffocated by to advocate for and empower others.

Though being honest, I'm mostly just hoping they don't fall into the romance sequel trope of breaking them up to get them back together again.

To be clear though, in real life I think the entire monarchy should be abolished - but in this gay little movie world I have other thoughts :)

[carriagelamp]

A few days late, but I'm lazy...

My favourite books that I read during 2023!

I got really lucky this year, I read some ridiculously good books, to the point that I had a really hard time narrowing them down. And I cheated on a few and bunched them up so I wouldn't have to choose 🙃

I did more detailed assessments of the books in my month reviews, but for anyone that's interested in something I read, here's a quick description:

Annie: An Old-Fashioned Story by Thomas Meehan -- A novelization of the Little Orphan Annie story, close related to the film musical including references to the songs. A charming read that captures the enjoyment of the film but adds a lot more details into the struggles and hardships Annie would have gone through during life on her own in the Depression.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild -- Three girls from a poor family in London end up being welcomed to a ballet academy where they have the opportunity to learn not only how to dance, but to begin attending performances that let them earn money for their family. Follows the heart warming adventures of sisters with a nice balance of financial hardship and obligations during the Depression.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle -- A possession horror based around religious trauma and sexual identity. Fantastic prose and genuinely chilling at points without ever feeling hopeless. Here the demons that start stalking people in this God-fearing Montana town are both metaphorical and literal.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd -- A collection of radio stories that follow the childhood misadventures of Ralphie; these stories would go to make up the classic film A Christmas Story, and Shepherd's hilarious, clever prose makes it a very fun read whether you know the film or not.

Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker -- I actually read a number of pretty good Doctor Who novels this year (13 Doctors 13 Stories, Time Lord Fairytales, Silhouette) and even a Torchwood one (Skypoint) but Scratchman was probably my favourite of the lot. The Fourth Doctor, Sarah, and Harry find themselvese in a horror adventures as they try to defend a host of villagers against an invading force of evil, skeletal scarecrows that are attempting to infect the humans around them.

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones -- The star Sirius is accused of killing another luminary and losing a powerful instrument called a Zoi. His sentence for this crime is to be stripped of his powers and cast down to earth, to spend one lifetime living in a humble, mortal form - that of a true dog. If he can survive and find the Zoi within that lifetime, he will be welcomed back to the cosmos.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire -- A novella that explores the rehabilitation of children who had been chosen, who found a doorway and stepped into another, strange world. Adventures done, they now need to acclimatize themselves to living in the rigid confines of the real world.

Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams -- A hilarious and surprisingly heart-warming story about a boy and his grandfather who was a flying ace during the war. With his mind beginning to fail him, the grandfather is sent to live at a sinister and definitely evil old folks' home. Only Jack can save him.

Hazel's Shadow by Nicole MacCarron -- Hazel has always been plagued by strange visions - the ability to see and speak to ghosts, as well as the knowledge of a strange, nameless horror living in her grandmother's house. Things come to a head though, when a sudden, zombie-like illness explodes through her town leaving only a few left alive, too many ghosts to count, enemies at every turn, and the shadow waiting for them.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree -- (as well as it's sequel that came out later in the year, Bookshops & Bonedust). This was such a pleasant, low-stakes, domestic fantasy about Viv, an orcish ex-mercenary who has decided she's tired of fighting and would rather settle down and open a coffeeshop. One of the sticking points being, of course, that no one knows what coffee is.

Love Beyond Body, Space & Time by assorted authors, anthology -- An Indigenous queer sci-fi anthology with a really excellent collection of stories, including an author I already knew and loved! The stories explore a wide range of gender, sexuality, magic, machines, and ways of being, I highly recommend picking it up!

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske -- Robin, a young baronet, thought he was being shunted into the most out of the way and miserable public servant position imaginable. He expected things to be tedious but necessary. He did not expect to suddenly learn that magic is real and to be tangled in its machinations in a potentially lethal way.

(MDZS) Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Rejoice, because the feared Yiling Patriarch, the necromancer terror who slaughtered thousands, is dead! And has been dead the past decade. And is now very, very confused to wake up in a new body that isn't his, in a room he's never seen before, and to be thrust into the middle of a murder mystery where everyone would want him dead if they were to learn his real identity.

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson -- Moomins hibernate through the winter, that's how it has always been for them. So when young Moomintroll wakes and finds the rest of his family still fast asleep, he's left feeling lost and isolated in this new, strange, snow covered world beyond his door.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers -- (and its sequel A Prayer for the Crown-Shy) A very gentle, compassionate sci-fi novel that explores a world humans have created post-climate-crisis. Life is different, the past distant, and a young tea monk never expected to run into an actual robot, who had so long ago left humanity to live their own secluded life in the wilds. Now they're both struggling to answer the question "What do humans need?"

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore -- (and Kate Moore's other book The Woman They Could Not Silence) The Radium Girls is a narrative non-fiction book that looks at the lives of the girls who were paid to paint luminous watch dials using radium paint. It explores the horror, exploitation, and suffering that came from work place negligence and the world's gradual learning about what exactly radium can do.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston -- Presidential son and British prince are forced together for the sake of publicity - to prove that they don't actual hate each other and aren't going to cause a diplomatic incident. They cause a whole new and exciting diplomatic incident by falling in love! Do not read this for the politics, but it did end up being way way better than I expected, this author creates quite compelling characters.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett -- Sour, spoiled, and ill Mary is sent to live with her distant uncle on the Yorkshire moors. Set to be as contrary and unhappy as possible, little by little Mary begins to come out of her shell as she experiences nature, play, and love for perhaps the first time in her life.

System Collapse by Martha Wells -- Newest Murderbot book!! Murderbot, ART's crew, and the humans from Preservation are doing their best to defend the colonists on a plant that's cursed with a strange, alien plague from being consumed by the more immediate threat of corporate slavery. Something, however, seems to be wrong with Murderbot and its worried that if it can't fix the problem soon, it may cost its humans their lives.

(TGCF) Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Xie Lian is a god. Was a good. He has ascended to godhood twice, and been banished back to earth twice. Once a favour among the gods, he is now a laughing stock, a scrap-collecting god who has been forgotten by almost everyone. So it is with some shock and exasperation to all involved when he ascends for a third time.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone -- A ridiculous poetic novella written through improbable letters that are written between two time travels on opposites sides of a time war. Seriously, this is probably the most beautiful book I read this year, go read it, the hype is justified.

Wave Me Goodbye by Jacqueline Wilson -- As World War Two rages, Shirley, like many children of the time, is sent from her home in London to be housed by a foster family in the country in order to avoid the Blitz. Put up with two boys in the strange, mostly empty Red House, Shirley has to find a new life for herself out in the country.

When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb -- Uriel the angel and Little Ash the demon find themselves drawn from their usual lives when a young girl from their shtetl goes missing after emigrating to America. Both with their own reasons for wanting to leave the old country, they set off on a sea voyage that will change everything for them.

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame -- The classic stories of Rat, Mole, and Toad. The story begins when Mole, venturing out of his little burrow, meets Rat and winds up living with him in his little home by the river rather than returning to his own, lonely, little hole. From there they have a variety of domestic adventures over the seasons, most notable being Toad's ill-fated obsession with motor cars.

[quackoyesyes]

Watched Red White & Royal Blue, here’s my letterboxd review as a The Social Network fan who loves it and jewnicorn at a sensible level:

Absolutely loved it, go watch it right now

[thestudyinglesbian]

book review: red, white & royal blue

*any possible spoilers are below the cut, but there aren't really any - comments and/or reblogs will likely contain spoilers*

started: 16/8/24

finished: 20/8/24 (the review sat in my drafts for a bit oops)

rating: 9.7/10

thoughts: ASDLGJGZSKF THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD!!¡!!!¡¡!!¡!!!! I ACTUALLY CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT I LOVE IT SM!!!! it's the first romance book I've read in a while and it did not disappoint

fav character: honestly I love then all sm my fav changes from chapter to chapter

fav ship(s): obvious but gotta go with Alex x Henry (firstprince?) i mean they're just so perfect

fav headcanon(s): still stuck between lesbian!June x leabian!Nora, poly June x Nora x Pez, and aro/aroace Nora

lesbianism level (if you missed it, a book reaches perfection once it has a lesbian in it): 7/10 - likely lesbian!Amy, possible lesbian!Bea and potential but unlikely lesbian!June and lesbian!Nora

nsfw scenes: there were quite a few smut scenes (some quite long). I skimmed/skipped over completely most of them bc I dont really enjoy reading smut (idc if you do it's just not for me), but you can easily skip over it w/o miss much (if any) plot

did i annotate: I have a couple annotation but mainly things like "GAY GAY GAYYYY" "ALEX HOW STUPID ARE YOU" "BRB GONNA GO SOB THEY'RE SO CUTE"

would i reread: yes 10000%

I would recommend to: the gays, the romantics and everybody ever bc IT'S SO GOOD

next book: when the coffee gets cold (a current read post will come once I'm familiar with it)

[she-karev]

📚July Book Review📚

4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“But the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable.”

For the month of Independence Day I thought a romance with themes of our country might be a good book to read. And boy was it ever. This is the perfect comfort read for the entire queer community. It's got humor, it's got romance and it's got a little angst in it to keep you at the edge of your seat. We all love a rivals to lovers trope and seeing it between the First Son of The United States and the Prince of England is Chef's kiss. The main characters are enchanting in their own unique way and their chemistry ignites in the pages. The supporting characters are interesting as well as they provide humor that made me laugh. The world the book is set in has a more optimistic and liberal atmosphere than the real world but there's behind the scene politics that are accurate to what we hear on the news. All in all this book begs the ancient question, 'Can love conquer all?'

[coffeebookslovegt]

Romperé la barrera del sonido por ti

[lexielivid]

Boyfriends

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine

[jessread-s]

✩🌙🐉Review:

736 pages of everything I’ve ever wanted in a thrilling fantasy romance!

“When the Moon Hatched” follows Raeve, a valued Elding Blade of the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, after she is captured by a renowned bounty hunter employed by The Crown. She finds herself at the mercy of the Guild of Nobles—a group of dual-beaded elementals who intend to turn her into a political statement. That is until Kaan Vaegor stumbles upon her. Echoes of the past race between them. There’s more to their story than meets the eye, but some truths are too poisonous to swallow.

This book is a vibrant tapestry woven together with lyrical prose, an immersive world, a unique magic system, mysterious creatures, complex characters, and a beautifully devastating romance. I was captivated by every single thread to the point that I became so deeply entangled in the book that I was afraid to reach the end, because it meant parting the world and the characters in it. 

The first half of “When the Moon Hatched” is very slow-paced, which might be a deterrent to some, but was actually helpful for me as I adjusted to Parker’s intricate, dense world-building and parsed through her world’s rich history. Referring to the glossary and map was especially helpful and enriched my reading experience. 

Once the pacing picked up, I was gripped by the plot and the multiple perspectives I read from that contributed to its unfolding. I particularly love Raeve’s character. She is a strong, sassy, female protagonist that takes matters into her own hands and doesn’t allow anyone to make her feel less than. Her chemistry with Kaan is undeniable and I really enjoyed how it took her by surprise. She tries to brush it off, but not even their witty banter can mask the tension and longing behind every word, touch, and glance between them. The two are slow to act on their feelings, despite my suffering, but the payoff is a balm to the soul.

Parker really got me with the shocking revelations made in the final few chapters. I anxiously await “The Ballad of Falling Dragons”!

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[home-ward]

Writing fantasy has my heart 💛👩🏼

2024 writing, moodboarding, editing, and rewriting has begun. Follow my adventures on Instagram

[whilereadingandwalking]

Queen B is a short novel prequel to the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series by Juno Dawson, revealing the mystery and betrayals that broke open one of the most powerful covens in British history. The story begins with Anne Boleyn's death. Lady Grace Fairfax was always her most loyal subject, and she's determined to avenge her queen. Who in their coven betrayed Anne? And can Grace solve this mystery without the full violence of a patriarchal witch hunt falling on their heads?

Juno Dawson's HMRC series is a recent favorite of mine, and this historical fantasy continues her tradition of strong twists and bold, brutal female characters. We get to see the beginnings of their coven in flashbacks, see a witchy Anne behind the scenes, discover her hopes for her daughter and for their kingdom. This is a quick, fun read of scheming and magic featuring a female-driven alt-history that will delight fans of the Tudor dynasty and its history as well as fans of Dawson's novels.

Content warnings for misogyny, sexual harassment, violence.

[sour-facedsaints]

Book Review: FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

⚠️ Given the recent hurricanes in Florida (and across the Southeast) there is the potential for this book to hit a little too close to home for some. Proceed with caution. ⚠️

art by John Bergin

Year: 2016

Genre: Thriller; Isolation Horror

Format: audiobook

Length: 10hr

Stars: 3

Summary: A devastating hurricane hits the coast of Florida, and roughly 300 theme park employees willingly stay behind in storm shelters on FantasticLand property to maintain the park once things move from emergency to aftermath. It should be easy money, right?

But as things quickly get out of hand, some take advantage of the absolute freedom that comes with isolation from the outside world, and others are forced to defend themselves. Tribes form, alliances are struck, and by the time rescue arrives, a wholesome American landmark has turned into a scene from a horror movie.

The tale of the warring tribes that formed over a breakneck 5 weeks of isolation is presented as a series of interviews with the survivors.

Thoughts: This book was a fun, wild ride. I listened to the 10 hour audiobook over the course of just two days, and enjoyed myself thoroughly the entire time. The performances were great, and the whole thing had the appeal of a well-narrated NoSleep story or creepypasta. That is to say, cheesy, and maybe a little unrealistic, but a really good time, especially to the right audience. I loved the ShopGirls and the Freaks sections, and the Warthogs chapter was a massive standout. That could stand on its’ own as a fantastic short story.

My biggest criticism is that the main justification for how things devolved to murderous tribalism in a matter of hours is a very one-note take on social media addiction. This is despite systemic failures, combined with one charismatic psychopath’s efforts to escalate the situation, being so clearly the real villains, in my opinion.

Hockney and management and all the rest do get acknowledgments for the role they played, but the final blame is placed on the bored minds of college students who were trapped without Facebook for a few days. It’s giving…

and was a constant distraction. I kept waiting for the author to arrive at some greater conclusion or explore the other causes more but, nope. It’s because they’re always on that damn phone, apparently. As such, it required a major suspension of disbelief for me to get through.

I would also classify the book as more thriller than horror. The events are brutal and gripping, but not particularly scary.

I would recommend this book to: fans of Yellowjackets and similar stories, fans of NoSleep stories/creepypasta, anyone looking for a fun but brutal thriller.

[mrdcoolblue]

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

💙👑

[text ID: This is such a sincere and beautiful story, with just enough melodrama to keep it exciting. Alex and Henry are richly rendered characters, and the whole world comes to life. I got caught up in the emotional highs and lows. /end]

I can't believe it took me this long to pick up this book. I loved it so much I had to draw the Victoria and Albert Museum in my reading journal.