Vengeance of the Pirate Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King #3) by Tricia Levenseller

I really enjoyed this tale, a revisit to Levenseller’s popular Pirate Queen series starring said queen’s misanthropic pirate assassin Sorinda accidentally unleashing a threat to the world while on a rescue mission. Sorinda’s characterisation was top tier. She was deadly without being one of those stuck up entitled fake assassins we see so often in […]

Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros

I DID IT. I listened to a 28 hour audiobook in under 3 weeks. I’ve never done that before lololol. I was worried that having a 600 page book come out so quickly after the phenomenal success of Fourth Wing (six months between releases which is quite rare in traditional publishing) meant that the book […]

When You Get The Chance by Emma Lord

This book was fantastic. I was a little hesitant in the opening chapters because I wasn’t sure I would get invested in a weird rivals-to-lovers where the main characters already thinks the rival is hot as fuck, but in the end the strength of the rival character won out. I recall at first wanting there […]

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Loveless by Alice Oseman introduces readers to the complexities of aroace (aromantic asexual) identities mainly through the character of Georgia. This book delves into Georgia’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance, highlighting her challenges in understanding her aroace orientation. Funnily enough, Loveless wasn’t my first ace book… or even my second. I didn’t realise I was […]

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas is this author’s debut, and as much as I enjoyed it, I think I enjoyed her later novels more. I definitely feel that she grew as a writer through her next few novels. This one felt a bit like a mystery, but never really pulled off suspense or thriller […]

Where the Light Goes by Sara Barnard

Where the Light Goes is a bittersweet novel about grief and survival after suicide, starring Emmy as the little sister of Lizzie Beck, the ‘wild child’ of the teen pop girl group The Jinks. Emmy knows Lizzie better than anyone: to Emmy, Lizzie is just Beth, her older, extremely loyal, and extremely loving famous sister. […]

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros

I’m not being funny when I say this is written for the ADHD generation. There is no inciting incident. I’m not a huge stickler for ‘writing rules’ (except grammar, and don’t confuse your homophones) because books do successfully break them, and books these days are coming out more and more without inciting incidents. And why, […]

A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr

This is a touching and poignant middle-grade novel that explores themes of family, friendship, and belonging. The story follows the a-mazing Meixing Lim, a young girl who immigrates to Australia with her family from a small island that is never identified, but was most likely near China. Struggling to adapt to her new home and […]

The Lake by Natasha Preston

I think that Natasha Preston is not for me. I’ve read The Twin, which was an OK read until the ending, which I did not like AT ALL and rewrote it in my head to an ending that I actually thought was completely plausible and satisfying. With The Lake, I was able to suspend my […]

Lightlark by Alex Aster

I didn’t really feel like Lightlark was a YA courtesy of the suggestive content which had more in common with indie smut than trad YA fantasy: as it happens, those two genres happen to be my favourite and I read a fair bit in both. I didn’t go into it expecting it to be YA, […]