books_ergo_sum's Reviews (933)

This was such an important book for me to read. Because I’ve always been down for intersectional feminism—without really knowing what it meant.

And I can’t imagine a better book to make me realize that “intersectional” doesn’t mean a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B—aka just simply misogyny plus racism.

Instead, this book explained (so clearly!) how the history of both racism and patriarchy in the US has made the black female experience just… an entirely different beast.

She discussed so. many. details (and it was kind of overwhelming but that was also the point) but, for example, take these three—
✨ The way that economic greed lead to black women playing a ‘masculine role’ as field labourers under slavery—doing labour that was considered taboo for white women.
✨ The way that pervasive sexual assault against female slaves was rationalized by the idea that black women were ‘naturally licentious’—and how this created an equal and opposite idea that American white women were particularly un-sexual/pure (even compared to their European counterparts).
✨ The way that 20th century black activists had internalized the patriarchal elements of white supremacy (to the point where they were arguably more misogynistic than their white counterparts, interested in the most misogynistic strains of Islam, etc).

She used this history to explain how black women have been excluded from both feminist and anti-racist movements. And how they carry an almost incomprehensible mélange of oppressive stereotypes today—from inhumanly strong matriarch, to angry, to sex object, to dominated by patriarchs, to devalued domestically, etc. etc.

There was also an intentional approachable-ness to the text that I appreciated.

Highly recommend.

I love this series. It has fully ascended into alien romance comfort read territory. So when this came out, I dropped everything to read it. And had a great time!

Who doesn’t love a grumpy, emotionally constipated alien getting walloped by some fated mates goodness? These two idiots were adorably stupid for each other.

The start of this book was a few reworked holiday novellas—which were rewritten so perfectly, that was impressive. And the last part was an alien mates Olympics thing, which always slaps. There was just a middle bit there that felt a tad directionless (and is the reason this gets a four). But the couple was cute and the story was fun.

Overall: great book, great series. I recommend it!

This alien romance had a few elements that I really loved:
✨ a rejected mates romance plot that involved a lot of rejecting her and then standing in the shadows and watching her like a creep—the best
✨ a genuinely scary looking alien guy
✨ not your usual ‘newly spacefaring humans make contact with advanced alien societies and are treated like the most important/sexually attractive group of people in the universe’ story—nope, they were treated like stateless migrants and sent to labour on a mining planet by aliens who didn’t give two craps about them
✨a spooky atmosphere to the mining planet setting, which I was pleasantly surprised by
✨ the group of humans had both men and women in it—this is such a green flag for me. I just love the social dynamics this brings to the human-human interactions

Basically: a great premise, pining, and really standout sci-fi world building. This is the kind of stuff that my five star alien romance book dreams are made of.

But then it just had one thing that bugged me. So much so that it knocked this down to a three:
▪️ it hinted way too hard at everything. You know what I’m talking about? There’s only so much ‘she’s so small, she fits into tight spaces… he could complete his mission is only he could fit into that small space… whatever will they do??’ that I can handle 😆

This was a very unique feral-for-my-fated-mate alien romance story. Because our heroine had a lot of boundaries and their love language was all about respect.

The couple was great and the story was satisfying. The only reason why this gets a four and not a five is that I irrationally prefer the introductions to plotlines over the wrapping-up of plotlines. Why? I have no idea.

But the overarching plot of this series (and the Virgin Warriors of Kar’Kal too) has been so compelling. From ethnic cleansing and multi-generational refugee aliens living in exile, to the perpetrators of that ethnic cleansing becoming victims of a g-cide themselves, to trying to rebuild a society—it’s been a lot. Super compelling (and way more politically relevant than it should be).

Sapphic gothic horror short story. Friends to lovers, one FMC was married to a man (a gothic horror villain man? 👀). A haunted house, a curse. Loved all that.

I figured if anyone could get me out of my comfort zone and into a new-to-me genre, it would be Anne Knight; someone who’s quickly becoming a new all-time favourite historical romance author 🥰

My favourite part of this reading experience was not knowing if this was going to be more of a Northanger Abbey vibe or something super scary. So I won’t tell you either.

Second chance romance (after 20 years), a marriage of convenience, and a Scottish castle.

What I loved:
- how awkward this marriage of convenience was
- that these characters had some real flaws
- how 0% swoony this hero was (he dug himself quite the hole and it filled me with glee)

But what I didn’t enjoy:
- how this 20 year time jump ripped my heart out and then didn’t put it back together

I don’t know about you, but when a romance has a huge time jump, my expectations for the romance plot itself get super high. Like, the romance plot has to be at least 2x more romantic to make up for that time jump shock.

And this on didn’t manage to, for me. I wish their romantic feelings hadn’t developed in quite the way that they did. It was more ‘in their own head’ than during their interactions? If that makes sense.

Also there was a kid. And the kid kept getting lost. I was over it 😆