This book brought me so much happiness, after being in tears from the ending of a different devastating novel.

This is what I think should be a person's coffee table book. You can open it to any page and find something that will bring a smile to your face or cause you to giggle.
Catana is incredibly relatable and sweet and everyone deserves more of this in their lives.

This was incredibly interesting, while I have done many personality based tests this book gave me different insight towards how to approach different things and combat things like negative self talk.

While a lot of these tips are something that would be learned in therapy for many people. I think this could be incredibly beneficial for so many.

If you're curious what this Enneagram thing you hear about on Twitter is?
This book will help you learn about it, while also making it fun and self-informative.

This book was incredibly interesting especially with a morally grey female protagonist.
The story is super interesting, and I was actually surprised by the "mask reveal" at the end of the story.
Along with the relationships between Alessandra and the other men and women in court.
It was nice to see close friendships between men and women happening, without a need for romance.

My one giant peeve was that there was no certainty in the type of time period this exsisted in because sometimes were hearing about chamber pots, but later we will hear about plumbing and it is contradictory.

This book had so many exciting ideas that I wish had been explored more in-depth than they were.
Ruinsong has one of the most unique magic systems I have encountered in a fantasy novel. I wanted to know so much more about the different branches of magic that exist. While this is such an integral part of the story, this was brushed over,

Cadence is... remarkably uninteresting as a character to follow; her motivations are entirely self-centered. She commits acts that are very much war crimes, and this book does not address it.
Cadence as a character is the exemplary example of the discussion of if someone turned a blind eye to the things happening in Germany during WW2, can we really say they weren't a Nazi? Especially with Cadence being in such a high position of power.
There are undertones of the argument of how she was raised, and because she was never taught how to defend herself, how could she possibly fight this higher power.

Spoiler

In reality, Cadence doesn't seek out the need to learn how she can help; she is pressured into it and is pressured into everything she does to counter the Queen.
In the end, Cadence doesn't answer to any of the above; the book kind of shrugs and is like, well, she gets pardoned by her GF's mom, and everything is just hunky-dory.

What I will sing praises for is the queer representation, alongside the representation of non-monogamous relationships. Non-monogamy is rarely shown in books as an option, which is the biggest annoyance when it comes to Love Triangles because I'm like, WHY NOT BOTH?
But to read a story where it is 'mostly' normal to have queer and non-monogamous relationships and straight monogamy isn't the default was incredibly refreshing. Even if it also features insta-love.

All in All:
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting read with a nice side of romance. But isn't wanting to think too deeply about things going on in the book,
But don't expect it to follow through on:
Her voice was her prison…
Now it’s her weapon.

This book ignited something in me that I haven't felt since reading the Harry Potter series as a young child. I had a hard time putting it down to eat a meal, let alone play a board game with my partner. For the first time in years, I was sitting up at 3 am with a bedside lamp on reading because I had to know what would happen next. I was so invested in this story; I couldn't put it down.

This is a reimagining of The Story of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. It's honestly nothing like I would have expected, especially reading other "retellings" of King Arthur before.

Tracy Deonn is a master at writing to ensure that you are engaged the entire time; I never felt that I was lingering on anything too long. The way each piece was incorporated is impressive.

This book covers so much ground that I feel like I can't talk about it without spoiling it.
If you're looking for queer representation, it is here and fabulous.
There isn't a lot of representation for people of color, but that heavily influences the story.
While it does suffer from inst-love, it's honestly adorable.
This book also touches on things like generational trauma and grief,
It's got action; it's got romance, it's got mystery. Why haven't you picked this up already?

My thoughts on very spoiler-filled parts of the book:

Spoiler

So getting into the nitty-gritty spoiler portions. To say I felt like Tracy Deonn cracked my head open and pulled out a large handful of the strings of thought that were going through my mind while reading this book would be an understatement.

From the moment that Bree thinks about the lack of diversity in The Order, my brain began churning because, in my mind, that was more than just a little bit suspicious.
Especially since time and time again, we hear The Order described as a Good ol' Boys club. It's hard to believe that not a single of those men didn't own slaves and do unspeakable things to those women.

Especially when we continually hear about the things they've done to purge the world, witch burnings are just among the many atrocities they committed over the years.

I thought this was just a line of thought that would just go unanswered, but INSTEAD, we end up jumping head first into every single branch of this thought process, starting with Lord Davis's absolute disgust of Bree and trickling down from there.
I felt so heard that this wasn't something that was just left hanging in the wind and that it was as important as it was.

Worries for moving ahead:

Spoiler

1. In reality, Bree was never really in love with Nick, and it was just their bond between Lancelot and Arthur all along.
2. Sel is going to end up playing the role of Guinevere. (While I'm all for gender-swapping seems like the same old stereotype bluh)
3. OR WORSE, a love triangle.

Having heard about this book from Cindy's constant gushing comments about it, its been on my TBR for a long time. Taking some time off during Thanksgiving gave me time to dive head first into Six of Crows with my Partner.

I honestly wish I had read it sooner. It was an exciting ride that made our long drive much more fun.

This book is action packed, and has a lot of amazing characters who grow throughout the entirety of this story.

It was interesting to see where these people came from and how they got to where they are at the start of this book, and then to continue to watch them grow over the course of this book.

"I also owe this book and my life to my queer community ... This is for you. This is for all of you. There's a place for you in the future, and it's better than you can imagine. Please be there to meet it. We need you on our side."

This book is so short, and in the times we live in, it was much needed. I would recommend it to anyone in the queer community.

While I hope that the world we see in this book is as far from what I and others in the queer community have to look forward to in a century, the story is still poignant.

Upright Women Wanted, at its core, is about finding a family that loves you as you are. Not expecting you to be something that you aren't.

Though I also found the underlying story about the nation that was the US incredibly poignant to the moment we are in where we hold the idea of The United States on such a high pedestal, a group of people act like The US infallible when in reality it is and if we don't pay attention Facisim can and will take hold as we see here.

SO I found this by complete chance last week, as I starkly avoided going home by wandering the library in an attempt to avoid returning home to the dread of monotony and the same four walls that the Pandemic has left me in.

What did I find by picking up this random book?

A book whose art made me feel like I was stepping into the fold of a Miyazaki film with a story that felt right at home by the side of my childhood favorites.

While darker than the standard Miyazaki film, it was still an amazing and different take on Persephone's story. I found myself enjoying almost every character Persephone interacted with within this book.

My one nitpicks as someone who grew up reading legend was how the differing Persephone's names were used. But that is easy to set aside.

3.5/5

To say I got something way different then I bargained for when I pulled this off the library shelf and added it to my stack, would be an understatement. Having thought this would be closer to a collection of humorous customer horror stories and not a semi-biographical coming of age story.

But in some ways it found its way into my life when I was needing it.

This story had me hooked despite the aspects that I found myself cringing away from (the rampant drug use).

Madge's journey of self discovery and growth is intriguing and makes her someone you find yourself rooting for.

But honestly my two biggest takeaways were that you only ever will really know the side of a person that they want you to see and that might not be the person that others know.

Along with the reminder I needed this week that someone's relapse isn't something that I shouldn't and can't blame myself for.

More crass then I would have expected...
I found it underwhelming and overall wasn't really my cup of tea.