books_ergo_sum's Reviews (933)

Part case study of Algeria’s decolonization in the 50s, part philosophy of man. This book did that thing I love with all my soul: combine philosophical chops with facts on the ground. This book is about national liberation movements understood through 20th century French philosophy—that classic mix of existentialism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, and Hegel. With three themes:
📕 on violence
📓 stages of a national liberation movement
📗 the psychological impact of colonial oppression

‘On Violence’ is (in)famous. Fanon's explanation that colonialism is “naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence,” is the most famous line in the text. There’s WAY more nuance to the section than that line suggests (like how a bourgeois class transforms this resistance into one of nonviolence) but Fanon definitely makes peeps uncomfy here.

I became curious about this book when so many pro-Palestinian interviewees were invoking Fanon's philosophical language. When Fanon says that violence is the "perfect mediation" (the Hegelian philosophy way to say ‘violence is the answer’), I'd want to compare his arguments to where Hegel himself said violence is merely an incomplete mediation (aka not the answer). I side more with Hegel than Fanon here—but if we don’t understand this argument, how can we even begin the conversation?

That first section was chilling. But the rest of the book was eye-opening. The middle chapters (on the stages of liberation movements, how post-colonial states develop, and the difficulties they face) make Fanon look like he had a crystal ball. And in the last section, on mental disorders, Fanon used case studies of his own Algerian therapy patients to illustrate the psychological trauma of colonial oppression, in its many forms.

Am I one of the "certain pharisees" that Fanon denounces for thinking "humanity has got past the nationalist stage"? Yes--I think Fanon is not critical enough of nationalism. And even if he thinks it is "nothing but a crude, empty fragile shell," history has shown that it's not as easy as he thinks to abandon it after a nationalist liberation movement is successful. And that leads to a ton of problems, to put it mildly.

A super important and approachable work of philosophy. I highly recommend.

If you like your size difference trope to be a tad worrisome, this book is for you.

I’m loving how this author combines excellent writing and bonkers smüt. We had:
💛 a scary on the outside, sweet on the inside ogre
💛 language barrier (maybe too much?)
💛 Cave Life™️
💛 forests of pining
💛 and of course, breeding kink

This book is a standalone in the same universe as the main series. So it just depends how you’re feeling—ogres or trolls? My vote is trolls. There’s only so much size difference a girl can handle.

What in the what was the chokehold this book had on me?

I should have hated it!
MCs who are kids for the first 25%? 🤢
A ‘dark mafia romance’? 🤮
That list of TWs? 😵‍💫

But… I loved it so much? A favourite of the year? An all-time favourite??

It was unputdownable; swoony and heart wrenching; and strangely cinematic. That epilogue? I cried like a friggin’ baby. Whatever part of me is responsible for The Departed being one of my favourite movies (don’t ask, I have no clue why I love that movie so much) vibed with this book. Maybe because it didn’t romanticize crime? Maybe because the characters were just as complex as the situations they were put in? … or am I just a simpleton who loves a good car chase?

This is the only mafia book I’ve ever liked. Probably the only one I’ll ever like. I don’t make the rules.

These are my reviews of the novellas I read in here, in the order I read them:

Quit Your Waning by Etta Pierce
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Loved this novella!!

I love this author so much—she has permanently altered what I’ve come to expect from an alien romance. The world-building is fully realized, the humans are extremely diverse, and the alien heroes are SO. WEIRD. 

And this hero was THE WEIRDEST ONE YET 🤣 … I honestly don’t know what was weirder. That he walked on four legs? That his brain got a little Gollum-y as he was falling for our heroine? That his mouth was shaped like a giant Y that went down his throat and had a bajillion teeth? That he “hugged" her by unhinging his entire jaw like a snake, biting her from her shoulders all the way down to her pelvis?? It was a lot, okay?

I should keep a log of all the weird words this author makes me google (this time it was prepuce 💀).

I loved our Korean heroine. She talked about so many cool Korean Halloween traditions (even the way the humid climate on this alien planet made her feel Halloween festive—can’t relate). And I just love that such a soft-spoken heroine ended up with the most bonkers alien yet.

Also, the peen was weird as hell.

Craving Stardust by Ava Ross
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was fun! It was my first alien romance set on earth and I really enjoyed the ‘crash-landed alien’ premise.

The fated mates and short length made the instalove fine with me. And the hurt comfort, forced proximity, and gentle love story resulted in something really sweet.

That said, there was a bit too much exposition for my taste. But even though I don’t enjoy that writing style, it was still interesting to encounter it here because it was also in the only other book I’ve read by this author. And that’s just good to know.

Hologram Hookup by Bebe Harper
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was exactly what I’m looking for in an anthology novella:
💜 exposure to a new-to-me-author
💜 a short story with a bonkers premise 

I read this with my lips squished together, trying not to laugh. The premise was so funny. Rescued humans living on a space station (with only a few human guys but a lot of human ladies), have been trying to make connections with aliens who turn out to be culturally or physically incompatible (if you know what I mean).

So when a fellow female alien suggested a virtual service where you can ‘test your compatibility with someone’, our human lady thought it was a simulation where she could ask invasive questions and do whatever she wanted to a computer generated alien guy.

Except, it was actually a VR dating app and that alien guy was a real person… 💀

Alliance with the Alien Pirate by Ivy Knox
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
MCs having to go through trials together (fight baddies, solve puzzles, get through the aphrodisiac fog) will never get old for me. It was adventurous and had some genuinely funny writing (the alien vibrator that she used as a nightlight/white-noise machine continues to randomly pop into my head).

Very instalove-y without fated mates, which isn’t my fav—but they were trauma bonding so I’ll allow it 😆 There was one overheard conversation that was a bit too convenient. But I still had a great time.

Bride of the Hallow King by Olivia Riley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am such a sucker for a ‘they fell in love talking over the phone’ story.

Secret identity, the way they talked for HOURS, the way she was devastated she would never meet her phone-love but then the vampire king was actually him—I was living.

Were the vampires the most convincing aliens? No. Was it a super spicy book? Also, no (I expected that from this author). But the conversations were so dang cute that I devoured this novella!

In Parallel by AM Kore
⭐️⭐️⭐️
You know what I love?
- 2nd person POV
- a non-binary love interest

I’m kind of obsessed with 2nd person narration ie, the heroine said "you ran” and meant herself instead of saying “I ran” or a 3rd person narrator saying “she ran.” It tickled my brain and brought me inside her internal monologue.

And a non-binary love interest, why the heck not? It felt especially fitting in an alien romance because why are we projecting a gender binary onto literal aliens? Unnecessary.

That said, this was more of a sexy adventure story (with a HFN) than a love story. And HEA > HFN for me, always. Plus, the heroine was too unbothered that her PhD technology thing randomly turned into an interplanetary portal—I wanted her to have more “aliens?!” panic. 

Also, we never learned the heroine’s name. And I know this is 100% a me-problem but I’m still not over how I couldn’t write the FMC’s name in my reading journal like I usually do.

Alien Ghostship by Bella Blair
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book had two awesome things going for it:
💚 this sentient ghostship felt genuinely haunted, which was super atmospheric
💚 even though the alien hero wasn’t there with her, the MCs could physically interact in their dreams, which is a literary device I’ll never get tired of

I just wish there’d been more on-page flirty-flirty.

The Twelve Nights of Halloheen by RK Munin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was so great! Loved the concept of future humans in space celebrating a recognizable—but also unrecognizable—earth holiday.

And mostly I loved how friggin’ sweet this was, just one giant hug. Kind gestures, heartfelt conversations, pining, he fell first, some adorable holiday culture clash, relationship building that felt very tailored to each other…

I’m not going to let my goal of finishing this anthology get sidetracked by a binge read of this author’s backlist—but I was extremely tempted.

Rescued By My Brother’s Best Friend by VC Lancaster
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You know those five star reads where you highlight/screenshot quotes on almost every page?

That’s what this was! It’s hard to describe why… because it was such a sweet story? Because I liked how much culture clash there was between our human heroine and our alien hero even though they’d grown up hanging out? Was it how weird, yet atmospheric, the sex pollen thing was??

This was low spice, but extremely cute.

Monster in the Mist by Honey Phillips
⭐️⭐️
I love when MCs interact in their dreams, which happened a ton here.

But two things were kind of bamboozling me:
▪️ the way the titular mist was messing with their minds—and therefore my mind (probably intentional)
▪️ the way the MCs somehow knew how to solve the whole mist thing even though there were no breadcrumbs about how that would could happen (probably an unintentionally too-convenient story element)

The I love you’s made me “huh??” and I’m still not sure what the status of fated mates was in this setting. This might be one where I’d have liked it more if I had read the main series first? But I kind of have no idea what was going on in this one.

In Trouble by Alana Khan
⭐️⭐️
This didn’t feel very sci-fi? It was giving small town romance… which I almost never like. It was about our human lady winning a dilapidated old B&B on another planet and falling for the hot construction alien guy whom she’d hired/was also living with her there. But he felt more human than alien? Same with the house. It had that Victorian Revivalist architecture style specific to the Eastern US… For a minute there I thought the story could turn it around—the book was being massively saved by how cute of a start the romance got off to. But that didn’t continue for very long.

And have I mentioned how much I dislike weird sex metaphors? 😆 There was a plumbing related sex metaphor in here…for like, way too many chapters. And there’s something about “neglected pipes” discussed in her “sexiest pout” that just ruined my whole day.

Orelia’s Orc by Iona Storm
⭐️
Nope. There was… no romance plot in here? The orc-alien hero’s emo internal monologue was making me laugh but I don’t think it was supposed to? He’d been devastated by his wife’s death for a gajillion (of his immortal) years… Only to immediately have an insta-love moment with the heroine? Not my fav. And this story even made me dislike a language barrier trope, which I didn’t think was possible.

Halloween at the Imperial Palace by Alma Nilsson
⭐️⭐️
Challenging myself to read an entire 2,800 page anthology? Fun! Reading a novella that I could tell wasn’t for me to complete that challenge? A little unfair to this author, tbh.

Let me first say that this worldbuilding was excellent—you know I love a book with a glossary. If I did seek out an erotica book that focussed more on sexy moments than romance plot, it would have a setting like this one.

That said, this was a ‘they’ve been flirting for a long time before the book began and they’re basically together at the start’ story. While I prefer a ‘they meet and flirt during the book, get together at the end’ story. You know what I mean? The CWs had scared me off this particular novella. But I was surprised that they were ‘well-intentioned’ CWs (our alien hero thought he was doing the right thing) which I normally love because it comes with a decent grovel… but I wish the grovel had been better in this one.

Lucky Chance by Ami Wright
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What in the what were these peen barbs? I was scared for her 😆 This was a fun ‘fated mates meet-cute, oops we’re on the run from baddies’ novella. With some added ‘he grows flowers, she’s a florist’ cuteness. It was great!

Blind Date with an Alien by Holly Hanzo
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story was off to a good start—a human lady abducted by bad aliens and then saved by good aliens; fated mates stuff and things. But once it got to the part where the three humans mentioned three dates, they just… did the three dates, without anything else going on.

The Witch’s Warrior by Chloe Parker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novella was really something special. It was creepy. It was atmospheric. Our human lady was a villainous hermit cyborg named Circe and she 1000% lived up to her name. Her kinda-evil animal companions and their glowing eyes were stressing me out. And our hero was an alien—an alien who’s been living on a post-apocalyptic earth.

With CWs like fem-Dom, blood play, and masochism… I was expected a certain kind of book. But this was surprisingly vulnerable and tender. Just really lovely. In a scary way. And I need to read more from this author, like now.

Defying Gravity by Cleo Rose
⭐️⭐️
You know what I randomly hate? When the characters have wings and there’s a scene where they have sex in the sky. I dunno! Is flying sex cringe? Is it cool? Am I completely wrong? Because I hate it so much, I take a star off a book every time it’s there.

That said, the concept of this novella was really cool. It was about a human who got abducted from earth, experimented on by baddy aliens to make her look like a completely different alien, and then dropped onto that different aliens' planet—where they assumed she was one of them. Mistaken identity, fated mates, culture clash, weird-peened sexy times, etc.

The problem? This was too much story for such a short novella. And it was way way way rushed. But—the author said in her Author’s Note that she was turning this novella concept into a full-length novel for next year. So that’s that solved.

Bloodbound to the Space Vampire by Deysi O’Donal
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I didn’t know I was craving some ‘hua hua hua’ Twilight song, Edward getting all weird when he smells Bella for the first time vibes. But apparently I was! Add in a little Vampire Diaries, hot girls dressed up as slutty whatevers at a college Halloween party put on by random gothic-loving millionaires… And I was living. This was my brand of campy vampire novella.

Fated to the Lost Warrior by Erin Hale
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This little story hit all the beats: human crash lands onto a low-tech planet, instantly runs into her schmexy fated mate, there’s sleeping in furs, campfires, and that jazz. It just lacked some oomph. I wanted more existential panic, more unhinged pining, more culture clash.

Midnight Mist by Michele Mills
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novella really made me want to read the series! Super de-duper virgin MMC aliens who go from never having had a boner to unhinged breeding frenzy, just by touching their human fated mate? That is a juicy setup! All the aliens were wearing gloves, the culture clash was fun, and the group of aliens at the centre of the series were all interesting—it was a good little story. But it had to catch me up on a lot of series information. And I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I’d read some of that main series before.

This was just a classic case of why Felicity Niven is my favourite historical romance author—utterly unique characters, a plot so unexpected that I don’t even try to guess where we’re going anymore, and So. Many. Feelings.

There was Phineas, this hero 😂
💚 part golden retriever
💚 part Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice
💚 part Austin Powers

Why did I love him so much?? He was so irresistible. The nervous word-vomiting, the complete stupidity, THE DIRTY TALK IN THIRD PERSON—I can’t 🤣💀 I wasn’t just laughing out loud, I was laughing so hard I was crying.

And Caro! She was the heroine version of your swooniest dark and broody hero. She was so enigmatic? Also hot?? She was literally the Strong Silent type—a lisp, a stutter, and an overbearing parent had turned her into someone who hardly spoke at all. She was such a fascinating POV—I loved being inside the mind of a heroine who was paying even closer attention to people’s words than I was.

But I’m mostly obsessed with how slowly our two MCs realized how perfect they were for each other. Not because this was some enemies to lovers kind of thing—Because they were so multifaceted-ly, so complicated-ly compatible that it just took time.

Also, Caro is one of the very few heroines I’ve read who believably had a praise kink. No shoehorning Good Girl where it doesn’t belong—I will only accept praise kinks written like this.

Oh yeah, and she was taller than him. Such a unique detail—and it wasn’t even in the top 10 most unique things about this book. That’s how on another level this writing was.

I received this as an arc and these reflections are all my own.

This was so fun, we had:
❄️ he’s just Ken
❄️ a double-peened alien
❄️ a truly clueless virgin hero
❄️ a survivalist heroine
❄️ he had a praise kink
❄️ and, honestly, he was Dumb. As. Bricks. 😂

It just had one flaw: a snow-cat plot that was too MacGuffin-y for me. But I still had a great time. And the heroine’s arc was especially compelling.

I’m loving this series!

Love a morally grey assassin alien guy.
Love a little light kidnapping.
She was tall, he was taller.
The fated mates mechanism in this series soothes my soul. And is hot 🥵
Plus, a nation of alien refugees striving for generations to reclaim their homeland was exactly the world-building I was looking for.

If only the couple hadn’t needed to stay away from each other as much. It made sense for the story, but I’m trash for forced proximity.

This was so good. It kinda combined my favourite parts of this author’s other two books into one super-favourite book?

It had the Before Sunrise-esque, one magical evening feeling of A Day Until Forever. This time, a clandestine Christmassy celebration while our MCs were snowed-in together at an inn. It had the grounded in social context feeling of Forever Your Rogue. This time, our barrister hero was pressured to defend a jerk in a case against a governess—while he fell for a different governess, aka our heroine. I’m obsessed with books that discuss the plight of governesses—have I mentioned Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë is my favourite Brontë book?

Love a whirlwind meet-cute plus “oops we meet again” story. I loved how sweet and lovely these two were together. Love a starchy good boi hero. And I loved our heroine—she reminded me so much of my best friend (who’s also a teacher) that it was scary.

Why can’t all stories be this swoony but also have a bibliography at the end?? It’s my two favourite things.

Forget marriage of convenience—Coil. Of. Convenience.

Oh my god, it was amazing!

“Coil" means nothing to people who haven’t read one of these books but it’s like… the most insanely weird alien mate thing. Of all time.

This coil of convenience story combined all my favourite things:
💛 WEIRD (no one makes their aliens weirder than Etta Pierce and I’m obsessed).
💛 Culture Clash (our heroine was like ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ and everyone, including me, was like ‘A LOT!’)
💛 Mess (the mess had layers lol)
💛 Canadian Christmas Nostalgia (our Canadian heroine far from home was feeling sappy and sentimental, I—also Canadian, though less from home—was feeling sappy and sentimental. She talked about butter tarts. My heart broke in two.)

Plus: our heroine was Native, our alien hero was a DILF, there was some fascinating parenting culture clash, the kids were very non-annoying (I usually hate kids in books)… oh yeah, did I mention the tentacles? The man had tentacles and knew how to use them.

I received this as an arc and I’ve been chasing the high of reading it ever since.

This little story was impressively emotional for its size. I love the way this author builds a scene and, in a little 89 page novella with just a handful of them, these scenes all packed a punch.

And the tropes were great—she was supposed to marry someone else, she was an aristocrat secretly earning an income as an artist, he was just a third son, her father would never approve, there was a hint of second chance. Lovely!

Everything was perfect… Except for one thing. That I hated with every fibre of my being.

The book was trying to tell me that he was a virgin MMC. And that she was an experienced FMC. Except she’d had one non-O, meh encounter. And he’d given and received oral so many times he'd lost count of how many women he’d been with.

Hate hate hate. I mean, virginity is a meaningless social construct but when virginity = P in V and only P in V, smoke starts coming out of my ears. It’s an involuntary response.