#stephanie oakes

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

TRCC Readathon - Day 2

finished:

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes - 3/5

Lockjaw by Matteo L Cerilli - 3/5

didn't quite enjoy my reads today as much as yesterday despite both of them being right up my alley on paper. fingers crossed tomorrow's more interesting ^.^

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (September 12th, 2023)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Name Drop by Susan Lee

Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass

These Pink Mountain Nights by Jen Ferguson

Monstrous by Jessica Lewis

A Hundred Vicious Turns by Lee Paige O'Brien

What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

Rez Ball by Byron Graves

Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite

The Borrow A Boyfriend Club by Page Powars

Fault Lines by Nora Shalaway Carpenter

The Eternity Gate by Katherine Briggs

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes

___

Happy reading!

[the-final-sentence]

The words that make us free.

Stephanie Oakes, from The Meadows

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

The Meadows

YA dystopian set in a hyper-surveilled future world devastated by climate change

a girl from a rural seaside town is offered a place in a school that only takes the ‘best and brightest’ - and jumps at the chance, but quickly finds out things are not as they seem: they’re there to be conditioned into obedient wives, and become part of the society which enforces the belief that end of the world was caused by people ‘going against nature’

switches back and forth between then and a few years later, when she’s graduated and working as an adjudicator monitoring her fellow graduates, so she can defer her own requirement to get married and search for the former classmate she loved who was taken away after they attempted escape

slow building and twisty, lesbian MC

[slaughter-of-corvids]

I love The Arsonist and I think people need to read it and rave over it and tell me why Molly Mavity would 100% have a tumblr

[punkeropercyjackson]

I like Older Brother Core but i'll be honest,i feel like it becoming seen as the quissisential of punk characters is a result of the whitewashing punk culture in media,in this case in the 2000s specifically.Like why is your idea of 'the ultimate punks' white boys who're mean to younger people with an emphasis on their own siblings rather than black/queer women activists and especially black queer women activists when historically they were the backbone of punk when it was being created........and why do you treat punk like it's inherently masculine when most punk men present femininely at least in mix with masculinity if not just are straight up femmes and when there's a whole punk subtype exclusively for lesbians with a subtype within itself exclusively for black lesbians

[the-weirdos-mind]

Madder Than A Peasant

The urge to write an Estella overblot fic had won.

@adrianasunderworld @mangacupcake @writing-heiress @fair-night-starry-tears @queen-of-twisted @achy-boo @abyssthing198 @fiendishfan

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was now or never. Estella was going to ask Crowley how the progress of going home was going. Don’t get her wrong, she loves that she’s finally made friends for the first time in her life but she still worries about her family. She still remembers how the adult relatives had freaked out when her cousin went missing. That’s something that’ll be engrained in her mind. She took in a deep breath before knocking on Crowley’s office door.

“Come in.” Crowley said. She opened the door and stepped into the office. She closed the door behind her before walking up to the headmage’s desk. The masked man looked up from his paperwork. “Ah, Miss Garcia. What can I do for you today?”

“Hey Headmage, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What would that be?”

She took in a breath, held it for three seconds before releasing it. “How’s the progress going on me going home?” There it was out now. Her heart started thumping in her chest in anxiety.

“Oh-Oh.” Crowley said, before clearing his throat. “I’m afraid I have nothing to report on the situation.”

Her heart stopped beating when he said those words. “What?” She asked, so softly like her voice was going to break. Her stomach jumped into her throat as tears started forming. She blinked to keep the traitorous streams from falling. “What do you mean there’s nothing to report?!” She raised her voice a little, feeling her frustration starting to broil.

“Miss Garcia, calm down. A lot of time is needed to get into this sort of thing. Interdiminsional travel is something that’s not familiar with mages.”

“But you had plenty of time! I’ve almost been killed several times in this place! I had to fight overblots left and right this year!” The tears started to fall as she began shouting. The frustration and resentment had been building up for so long that it had slipped out of her eyes. “I NEED TO GET HOME! I need to let my family know that I’m not dead!!” Crowley’s blood started to run cold as he watched the tears slowly turn an inky black and the magestone starting to shine a dark purple as she shouted some more. His golden eyes widened a bit and he stood up from his desk.

“Miss Garcia, you need to lower your voice and stop screaming.” He said. His hands were clenching his desk so hard that his claw like rings started to cut through the wood a bit. He knew where this was going and he didn’t like it one bit. Though he had seen a few instances where Estella had used magic, he never had a another thought about it. Her magic was something so strange to him. It comes and goes whenever it pleases so he never had any concerns about her developing blot. He should’ve known better than to brush it off as something non dangerous.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!” She yelled. Her voice sounded disoriented and deeper. “After all this time of passing your work onto me and leaving me on my own, you now decide to act like a freaking adult?!”

“Estella—“

“I’m done with your excuses!”

Her skin became paler as the inky tears started to drip to the floor. The ink on the floor had begun to levitate and stick to her until she was completely covered. Estella had no idea what was going on. Everything was becoming hazy as she started to fight conciseness. Spots flashed across her vision before everything went dark for a moment. Crowley let go of the desk, unaware of the holes in it and took a step back as the ink dripped off her. Her skin was so pale, like she just died. Her clothes had changed to a dark purple gown with black, broken glass shard images on her gown. The ink covered her hands, from the fingers to her elbows. Her hair was in a small upwards bun, disheveled with strands of her hair sticking up, behind a black crown that was broken and glued together. Her glasses were shattered and pieces were missing from the frames. Her feet were in glass slippers that appeared to have been broken. The being that rose out of the ink will haunt his dreams for a while. It wore a similar gown to hers, but dark blue and looked torn and stitched. It’s glass like head was shaped like a pumpkin, and cracked as ink dripped down. In it’s hands it held a giant glass slipper that was cracked and missing a few pieces and a large rotting pumpkin in the other.

Never had an overblot had given him so much fear. The crazed look in her eyes made his heart rate pick up. He pulled out his whip and lashed it at her. He has to snap her out of this. There’s no telling how much damage the blot would do to someone who’s not a native of Twisted Wonderland. The whip came for her but the Phantom stuck the arm full of glass in front of her. The whip snapped with it contacted the glass. He gasped as the broken half fell to the ground. “You should’ve been working on a way.” She said. She made the Phantom raise the arm with the pumpkin. The vegetable smashed down on Crowley. The headmage looked around the inside in horror as sharpened seeds started shooting at him.

He did his best to dodge the seeds raining down on him but some stabbed him. Blood started to stain his clothes. The Phantom lifted the pumpkin up and threw it through the wall. A large hole was made, allowing her to see the abomination bounce on campus. Some students who were walking back to their dorms leapt out of the way so they didn’t get smushed. Some were wide eyed as they heard the headmage’s screams ring out as it bounced past them.

The group of first years and Ramshackle students were walking back to the old dorm, having a study session planned for upcoming exams. Fanner was going to put some of his past knowledge to use to help the others as he’s the only sophomore who wouldn’t try to exploit them or hand them textbook sized study guides. A notification popped up in Ortho’s vision, making him scrunch his eyebrows in confusion and worry. “What is it Ortho?” Oscar asked, noticing the look on his friend’s face.

“There’s something coming.” Ortho said as he looked around for the source. “There’s something radiating blot that’s coming this way.” Everyone else stopped walking and looked at him.

“Wait, what?!” Grim said, spooked out.

“GET DOWN!” Sebek yelled. He, Ortho, and Fanner tackled the others as the pumpkin bounced over them. They all looked up, hearing painful and horrified screams.

“Where did that pumpkin come from?!” Ace shouted. Out of everything that they had seen so far, this was the strangest thing they had ever seen.

“That sounded like the headmage!” Deuce said, recognizing the voice.

“What in tarnation is he doing in a pumpkin?!” Epel said.

“We gotta stop it!” Cass said. They took off running after it, with Ortho flying ahead of them. He reached the bouncing pumpkin and got behind it. By now, it had bounced its way to the woods behind Ramshackle, without damaging the dorm in any way. The others managed to catch up and were taken aback by its appearance. It was rotting with dents in the skin. What creeped them out the most was the black ink like substance dripping from the cracks.

“That’s blot.” Stephanie said, confirming the question that they all had now been asking.

“Headmage is that you?” Ortho asked.

“Shroud? Oh, I’m so grateful that you stopped me!” Crowley said when he recognized the voice.

“Crowley, what happened?” Romeo questioned. “How did you end up in that pumpkin?”

“It was Miss Garcia. She—“

“You shouldn’t have stopped him.” A voice said. It was familiar yet disoriented and deep. The air became heavy with tension and magic. The sky turned a dark violet and they all turned around to see Estella standing there with a ticked look. They all gasped when they saw her, with some gaining horrifying looks on their faces. They never even thought she would overblot.

“Henchman?” Grim said. “Hey! You’re not supposed to overblot under my watch!”

“I don’t think that’s the appropriate thing to say!” Epel said.

Estella scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Get away from him, and I’ll tell you live. Stop me and you can join him in that pumpkin and die!”

“I’m sorry, Housewarden.” Cass said, pulling her pen out. “I can’t let you kill him!” She fired a spell at her. The overblotted girl caught it and threw it at the group. Some dodged while Romeo, Jack, and Ace got hit. The impact flung them against the pumpkin. The stem started to grow and stretch out towards them. They were dazed a bit from the impact and didn’t realized they were tied against the vegetable until it was too late. Ortho came from behind and used his laser to cut them free.

Cass, Deuce and Sebek were firing attack spells to distract her. Some of them hit her or the Phantom but each hit only fueled her rage and insanity. She started to fire counterattack spells in a blind furry. Their distractions had given Epel, Grim, Fanner, Stephanie and Oscar the chance to sneak behind her and start attacking the Phantom. The beast turned around and started to smash the ground with the glass shard arm. Each smack against the ground sent glass shards flying right at them. There was no dodging them as the shards followed them and hit them. Fanner jumped in front of his friends, and used his metal arm as a shield from the shards.

As she fought against them, the real her was watching from inside the rage. From blurry glimpses she saw herself attacking her friends and tried to snap out of it. Inky black tendrils wrapped around her and dragged her back, giving her a glimpse of the monster that accompanied this appearance.

“You guys don’t understand!” Estella said as she stomped her foot, making the ground shake. Vines shot up from the ground and wrapped around the three attacking her. Once the vines tied around them, they pinned them to the ground. “All year he’s been making excuses and ignoring my concerns and questions!” She turned her gaze to the people attacking her monster. She made the beast swing its arm at them. Grim yelped in pain as a glass shard impaled him in the back. He blew fire at the shard heading towards Oscar.

The boys eyes were glowing as he used his Signature Spell. “On your left!” He yelled at the others. The arm with a new pumpkin was heading towards the three. Thanks to his vision they were spared the same prison Crowley was trapped him. Grim went and freed those trapped by the vines.

“Estella, snap of it!” Ace yelled as he cast his famous air gust to brush away some glass.

“Please, Stella!” Deuce said.

“Until he sends me home!” Estella shouted. She continues to fire attacks as her friends tried to snap her out of this state. No matter what magic they used, they barely did any damage to her. She seemed stronger in this form. She was stronger like this. They were all getting exhausted from the prolonged magic use and the injuries they received.

“What do we do?!” Romeo asked. “We’ll die if we keep going like this!”

“Sebek Zigvolt!” Ortho said. “On my count, fire lightning!”

“That won’t do anything useful for the human!” Sebek said.

“Just do it!”

Sebek sighed and conjured up lightning, the lightning used for his Signature Spell. Orthro turned his arms into guns and aimed them at her. “Now?!” The half fae demanded.

“Not yet!” The humaniod said. He glanced at the charge.

“Now?!” The lightning ball in his hands was growing bigger.

“Just a little bit more!”

“NOW?!”

“NOW!”

The two fired at the same time. The two blasts of energy and lighting was heading towards her at incredible speed. Jack noticed the flash from the corner of his eye. “DUCK!” He yelled, throwing himself to the ground and covering his head. The others followed his lead. Estella glanced up just to see the two blasts heading towards her. She had no time to react as they struck her. She screamed as the static and burning sensation overwhelmed her. She stumbled on her feet until her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She collapsed, making the Phantom shriek as it dripped and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. The tattered dress disappeared, leaving her in her uniform once more

“ESTELLA!” Grim yelled as he ran to her. He pushed her until she rolled onto her back. He climbed onto her chest and grabbed her shirt collar. “Wake up!” He yelled as he started to shake her. Everyone else stood there as they watched Grim desperately tried to wake her up. The girl’s head jerked from the creature’s frantic attempt to wake her up. “No.” He mumbled as he stopped shaking her. “HENCHMAN DON’T YOU DARE DIE ON ME!!” Tears filled his eyes.

Estella’s eyes jerked open, making him yelp and fall off her. She sat up and looked at her surroundings in confusion. “What?” She mumbled. She groaned as her head started to pound. “What happened? How did I get here?”

“You overblotted.” Epel said.

“What?”

“Afraid so.” Oscar said.

She gasped, placing her hands over her mouth as her eyes widened in horror. She remembered what she did to Crowley and felt like throwing up. She may have hated him for pushing his responsibilities on her for so long but she didn’t want to hurt him. “D-Did I…”

“I’m still alive Garcia.” Crowley said as he approached her. He kept his distance after what he went through. She was so relieved that the man was still standing. “I do have half the mind to expel you for harming a staff member but I won’t. It’s clear that you don’t have control over your magic.”

She looked at him, feeling dread start to boil. “As punishment for your actions, you will clean the statues on Main Street once you’re deemed healthy by the nurse.”

“Yes sir.” She said. She looked at the ground, not wanting anyone to see the shame in her eyes.

“Trappola, Spade, take her to the nurse.”

The two boys nodded and helped the girl onto her feet. Her legs shook from the aftermath of the overblot and her guilt that she almost committed murder.

[secondstar-acorn]

i’ve been thinking about this for months so. here are these for me and nine other people:

they would be best friends. do you hear me

[stylestream]

Annalise Dalins | Eliya The Label dress • Tony Bianco pumps • Stephanie Spencer hat • Olga Berg clutch | Oaks Day | 2024

[deceitfulapple-eatingscoundrel]

Is it just me or does The Stolen Heir give off the same vibes as Once Upon A Broken Heart?

[ofstarsandmoonlightt]

Book Parallels~

The Ballad of Never After:

The Stolen Heir:

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (October 22nd, 2024)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Releases:

Love & Lattes by Beth Reekles

The Sweetness Between Us by Sarah Winifred Searle

Thief of the Heights by Son M. & Robin Yao (Illustrator)

Eleven House by Colleen Oakes

Happy Head by Josh Silver

The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

The Hollow & the Haunted by Camilla Raines

New Sequels:

The Blood Orchid (The Scarlet Alchemist #2) by Kylie Lee Baker

Spectacular (Caraval #3.5) by Stephanie Garber

Bane of Asgard (Runestone Saga #2) by Cinda Williams Chima

___

Happy reading!

[aondaneedles]

Maybe I should just chop it all off. I’ll have to talk to Bonnie about it...

“Ah, good morning Mrs. Kahn! We’ve got just the dresser for you, if you want to come in?”

[blogthefiresidechats]

Best 10 Books in.....Romance

I’ve comprised a list of the 10 best books from the romance genre. This list is in no particular order and this list is only my opinions based on what books I’ve read in the past. Enjoy! This book begins a paranormal romance series that follows Grace. After the death of her parents, Grace begins at a new school in Alaska and feels out of place. She doesn’t feel like she belongs until she meets…

[punkeropercyjackson]

Spiderpunks 2023

It's mega crossover fusion of Hobie leading a team of Spiderpunk Variants,my choices for the mantle giving based on their similarities to Hobie himself.This au was created with the purpose of Hobie appreciation outside of shipping!!

The other Spiderpunks are all black,either mixed or monoracial,regardless of canonicity but i did include mostly canon black characters!

The lineup:Hobart 'Hobie' Brown(Spiderpunk),Perseo 'Percy' Jackson(Punkero),Katara 'Don't call me Kat' Aipaluk(Seapunk),Stephanie 'Steph' Brown(Punkweaver),Ichigo Kurosaki(Punk Reaper),Marceline and Marshall Lee Abadeer(Spiderblud and Bludspider),Kat 'Don't call me Kit Kat' Elliot(Hellpunk),Katniss Everdeen(Punk 13),Sonic The Hedgehog(Chaos + Yes really,he's their Spiderham equivalent),Ekko Williams(Solpunk),Kipo Oak(Bitepunk),Nimona Boldheart(Arachna)and Rainbow Dash(Punkboom + Again yeah not joking,i love doing these)

Percy and the Abadeer Twins are 22,Katara and Nimona are 14,Stephanie and Ichigo are 19,Kat is 13,Sonic is 15,Ekko is 23,Kipo is 18 and Rainbow Dash is 20.Hobie's age is ambigious because I'm Tired Of The Discourse Around It So Let's Just Not

Spiderpunks is their shared mantle and also team name

It's Atsv!Hobie,not comics Hobie,based and functions as per the title as a 2023 starting sequel run to Atsv and is going to be a semi-long runner(above average comics team run length but not by a ridicilous amount)

They're completely seperate from Spider Society in affiliation,either completely or by the time of Issue 1 depending on the Spiderpunk in question

Percy is the Team Parent since he is in his books and the kids view him are as their big sibling figure and pseudo-parent and the other adults and him are found siblings except him and Stephanie who're just regular besties.There's no interteam ships except Kat x Nimona,which is instant best friends to lovers

The other ships are Percy/Lex(my s/i and her Gwen Stacy),Katara/Aang,Stephanie/Cass,Ichigo/Orihime,Marceline/Bonnibel and Marshall Lee/Gary,Katniss/Peeta,Ekko/Miel(another s/i of mine)and Rainbow Dash/Fluttershy

The whole team is trans and audhd along with being black-Percy is transfem bigender though,jic her any pronouns swag causes any confusion

Their theme song is Snickers or Reese's by Direct Hit!

Their meet up place is Sonic's Speed Cafe on Earth ♾️(emoji for accuracy)and it was created for him as a thanks for his good deeds and anarchistic actions in his civillian persona

Hobie and Stephanie joke about being siblings because of they're both jamaican and last named 'Brown'

Ekko and Percy bond over being afrosolarpunk specifically

And Hobie,Percy and Katara are the 'Unrestrained Seas' trio

Hobie,Percy,Katara,Ichigo and Stephanie are something of a Core Five because they were the first members of Spiderpunks and were around just them for a bit before the rest came along

Sonic and Rainbow Dash have matching star shaped goggles Percy made for them inspo'd by a certain bluehaired punk tgirl from an in-universe series she's a fan of

Kipo bites as affection out of Mute genes and autism(therian vibes)and that's how she earned her nickname and Nimona also does because she's not a girl,she's a shark.I do this so nonblacks don't be stupid

The Abadeer Twins provide the most spontaneous music but they all get in on it.None to their level though

Katniss took the longest to warm up to everybody,only out of pure loneliness beforehand,not even having met Peeta yet at her debut

Wendell and Wild are honorary members in the same way Spidermutt and Mrs.O'Leary are

Percy has his blue laces like Hobie does.......And not for the aesthetic.Rest in Piss Poseidon Waters

Also Stephanie has pink laces and that IS for the aesthetic <3 Pastel afropunk feminist queen!!!

Instead of Watches,they have Badges provided by Rukia,Ichigo's Guy In The Chair and decorated to their tastes assigned by his ramblings of them by Orihime,his Gwen Stacy and MJ fusion

Katara's Canon Event is being punk /srs.Ffr just look at her in Atla itself,she was a 14 year old eco-terrorist and revolutionary who ended up marrying the guy who literally invented decolonization in their verse.Kataang is punk4punk excellence

Hobie is everybody's favorite and gets special treatment because he deserves and has earned it after what a brutal ass adultifying childhood with no friends he went through

Ekko plays a mean kalimba and can cook real good so he's assigned the Chill Dude™️ and chef of the Spiderpunks

They try to help out Kat and Nimona get together but subtly as to not make them feel forced to be together(Hobie loves teasing them though <333)

Lex de los Santos is an Anomaly as Earth 27's,Percy's dimension,Ghostspider but thankfully survives like our Gwen and Miel Williams is an MJ who's happily married to Ekko for a year now

They share and steal eachother's clothes and sleep in the same gigantic ass homemade bed when they can in their base:The Anarchy Web,a futuristic organic huge house they accidentally created in a spidey pocket dimension

@theautisticcentre

[frecht]

OUGH THE MEADOWS IS OUT....IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS BOOK FOR FOUR YEARS....