I'm a huge reader, but I often find it difficult to remember what I've read before. I've tried book review journals, Good Reads lists, and Google spreadsheets, but I thought it might be more fun to share my thoughts with you! So here's what I've been reading this month.
Table of Contents
The Night and Its Moon by Piper CJ
The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland
Her Royal Happiness by Lola Keeley
The Vine Witch Trilogy by Luanne G Smith
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Night and Its Moon by Piper CJ
Farleigh is just an orphanage. At least, that’s what the church would have the people believe, but beautiful orphans Nox and fae-touched Amaris know better. They are commodities for sale, available for purchase by the highest bidder. So when the madame of a notorious brothel in a far-off city offers a king’s ransom to purchase Amaris, Nox ends up taking her place — while Amaris is drawn away to the mountains, home of mysterious assassins.
Even as they take up new lives and identities, Nox and Amaris never forget one thing: they will stop at nothing to reunite. But the threat of war looms overhead, and the two are inevitably swept into a conflict between human and fae, magic and mundane. With strange new alliances, untested powers, and a bond that neither time nor distance could possibly break, the fate of the realms lies in the hands of two orphans — and the love they hold for one another.
This one took me two days only because I started it late at night and basically fell asleep reading it. But I got to finish it standing in line for tickets at the Vienna Opera House and I finished it right as I got to the front of the line, so that was some perfect timing. This one reminded me of Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, I think just because of the 'trained assassin' aspect. The copy I read on Kindle had some typos and grammatical errors (which seems to be a problem regardless of release form based on other reviews). I did see several plot points coming before they were revealed but I enjoyed it regardless and I'll probably read the rest of the series as it comes out.
I would recommend this one for fans of Sarah J Maas and fantasy in general, as well as people looking for more queer representation on their bookshelf!
The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland
Two families. One house swap. A vacation to die for.
The white-washed Italian villa is perfect. I thought it might feel odd, living in a stranger’s house for the summer, but as my husband and children swim in the infinity pool, I start to relax. And then, in the back of a wardrobe, I find a photograph that shatters everything…
Sparkling green eyes, square jaw, lopsided smile. A young man with his arm around a beautiful woman. The picture is old and faded but I’d recognise him anywhere. The man is my husband.
But we’ve never met the family we’ve swapped homes with and my husband swears it isn’t him in the photo. He’s lying. We argue on the balcony with the sun setting behind us and I storm out.
When I finally calm down enough to go back to the villa to confront him, I find him sprawled across the veranda… dead.
Why would someone kill my husband? Am I in danger? And how well did I really know the man I married?
I binge watched Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile in one night and then had a craving for more mysteries, so I picked this one based on its summary and reviews while browsing the Kindle Unlimited offerings in the 'Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense' category. It was a fun single-afternoon read, although the main characters were somewhat one dimensional. Based on the summaries, I wasn't expecting some of the twists, and I was entertained throughout (although very mad at how Niall treated his family).
One thing I was surprised by was how long it took to get to the death mentioned in the summary. That doesn't happen until maybe 75% of the way through and the book moves quickly from there. I had expected something a little more "murder mystery" but this is firmly in the suspense/thriller category.
I would recommend this for people looking for an easy beach read who like thrillers and family drama.
Her Royal Happiness by Lola Keeley
Keeping a secret isn’t easy when you’re in the most visible family in the world. It’s even harder when you’re a lesbian who has just fallen madly in love. An opposites attract, charming royal romance with a dash of fake dating.
When tabloid darling Princess Alice, the first out member of the British royal family, meets an opinionated single mother, the encounter goes viral. It seems the anti-monarchist education specialist Sara has a view on all things and doesn’t mind sharing.
So when Alice later has to ask Sara to help diagnose her young nephew’s learning difficulties, it’s seriously awkward. At least until they discover how beautifully they click together.
With the press sniffing around them, and Alice desperately wanting to protect her nephew’s privacy, they agree to claim they’re dating.
But as their fake dates start to feel like much more, Sara and Alice must navigate having a real relationship in the public eye. Is that even possible, though, while keeping Sara’s daughter safe and happy, and facing the Queen’s disapproval?
Can they overcome their doubts for love? A love they can no longer hide?
Y'all. This was so cute. Like seriously freaking cute. Another Kindle Unlimited blessing (this time from the LGBTQ+ category), Her Royal Happiness is an adorable story about two women rubbing each other the wrong way and then quickly realizing how wrong they were in their first impressions. The author's note includes acknowledgement of a lot of resources that went into accurately writing not only the autistic young prince Rupert, but also the main character Sara and her work as a special needs advocate.
The Vine Witch Trilogy by Luanne G Smith
A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy of betrayal, vengeance, and self-discovery set in turn-of-the-century France.
For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.
Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.
I binge read all three books of the series within a week and quite enjoyed them! The first book moved slowly at times but was full of twists, turns, and red herrings. The romance between Elena and Jean-Paul didn't really capture me but the mystery and magic part of it was fun. I really liked how the two secondary characters that are introduced partway through book one get their own books for the rest of the trilogy! I think the third book (The Conjurer) about Sidra, the jinni who was accused of killing her husband, was my favorite because there were more twists and turns.
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The iconic opening line of Stephen King's groundbreaking series, The Dark Tower, introduces one of his most enigmatic and powerful heroes: Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.
Roland is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey toward the mysterious Dark Tower, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
On his quest, Roland begins a friendship with a kid from New York named Jake, encounters an alluring woman and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.
I know, talk about coming out of left field! My roommate messaged me randomly asking if I would be interested in reading the entire Dark Tower series with him and we then spent a solid two weeks looking at different lists with recommended reading orders, because apparently Stephen King can't help from linking basically every book he's ever written to this series. We decided to start out very simply with just the actual Dark Tower books plus The Stand.
I'll be honest, this one took me a while to get through, which I wasn't expecting. I've read at least two or three other King books and found them riveting but this one moved in fits and starts. Much of the book is flashbacks, and they're not exactly in chronological order. I also just struggled to relate to Roland, who is on what could be considered a valiant quest to save his world or could also be a cold-hearted quest for vengeance. He's not a cut-and-dry hero, and he's not always even a likable person. However, I persevered (and ended up liking the second book much more, but you'll have to wait for my May reading roundup for those thoughts!).
Fanfic Honorable Mentions
I love fanfiction and I'm not even gonna pretend. I spent a solid chunk of my life being embarrassed about reading it and being afraid that someone would catch me over my shoulder, but I don't even care anymore. Fanfiction is like the comfort food of literature, and it's gotten through a lot of dry spells in my reading and a lot of emotional and mental turmoil in my life. Reading fanfiction is like chicken noodle soup when you're sick or watching cartoons from your childhood when you're sad.
If you're not familiar with fanfiction, the premise essentially is that normal everyday people like you and me get to play around in another author's sandbox. When fans of TV, movies, or books dislike the ending or how a particular character was treated, we can write our own version of the story the way we wish it had been told. Or we can fill in a missing scene that we think should have been included. Or we can drop the characters from Arthurian legend in a modern day coffee shop on a college campus and see what happens. (These are colloquially known as Alternate Universe or AUs.)
I will almost definitely a whole post dedicated to the miracle of fandom that is fanfiction, but for now, just accept that it's a thing, I love it, you should too, and here are the standouts for this month.
Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love - A super fun post-Hogwarts Dramione (that's Draco/Hermione as a romantic pairing, for the uninitiated) involving Indiana Jones-esque hijinks and a pretty badass fight scene near the end. ~200k words.
The Abduction of Eomer, King of Rohan - I first read this one a few years ago but had a hankering to go back and reread it recently. This is a highly amusing adventure fleshing out one of the lesser known relationships in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (Eomer/Lothiriel), involving mistaken identities, kidnapping, and camping. ~50k words.
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