This book was lovely and quietly painful. It’s about faith and how it breaks and also about what it means to be believed in. 
And also about children and naïveté and stories. It’s not that it doesn’t say anything, it’s more that what it says is the book itself and it doesn’t really reduce.

PWP is not actually a thing outside of fanfic, but I will say that the ratio of stuff happening to sex in this book surprised me. The plot was “can these two nudniks realize they’re actually normal and really good for each other” and also a quiet rant on the part of Zabo about what, fundamentally, makes a good dom. It’s not a how-to guide, although it’s definitely an argument. 
The romance novel is a polemic. Change my mind. 
(Why is everyone at the ND coffee shop into kink?)
Having said that, I think I’ve finally run through all of Zabo’s back catalogue that immediately interests me so I may actually get some other books read.)

Okay, I just want to know who went up to Tolkien one day and said "I dare you to mash up Macbeth and Oedipus Rex, but set in Middle Earth."
(Note, I don't think this happened, but I do think that *if* it happened, it was CS Lewis who did it.)
Anyway, that's...basically the Lay of the Children of Húrin, just in high Tolkien-esque and, I mean, I realize this review is not selling it to anyone who doesn't already want to read it but, like, it's extremely good content if this is your content. No one does myth like Tolkien. He's one of the few authors who can write in the high mythic style without either falling out of the style when trying to talk about real people or making his characters impossible and too remote to relate to.
Also, Sir Christopher Lee reads the book and, I mean, what else is there?

So I've been avoiding contemporary romance for the past...lots of years, but since I've apparently read my way through everyone in the historical genres I'm willing to take a chance on and paranormal mostly makes me itchy, we're now apparently hanging out in contemporary romance with specific settings.
Fundamentally, the invention of an extremely popular yet nonexistent tv show is perfect for creating the contemporary version of the self-enclosed world of possibility that the historical romance benefits from.
Am I invested? Obviously. Is this my version of mainlining a tv show that isn't...good per se (like it's fine, I'm enjoying it, but insofar as it's interesting in engaging in broader question of the world it's portraying, this book isn't although the series may), but relaxing in all the right ways.

January has been a MONTH my friends. As should be obvious because literally half of what I've read this month has been romance. 8/16. 
I'm also fascinated by when I cope with stress by reading and when I cope with stress by not.
None of this has to do with the story, which was very sweet and I knew that the "for the love of dog and all that is holey will you have a conversation" part was coming and it did not last very long so, everything else being equal, it was a sweet little book.
I...don't have that much to say about it, although I am wondering about books 1-21 in this series and whether it's worth experimenting with a bunch of authors. IDK, let's find out.

Okay, why does this always happen where you read one book that has a very specific thing--in this case weird futures where societies rely on flesh and body horror to run--and then one week later you read a completely different book with the same thing in it.
Maybe, she observes, she could read the book descriptions before picking her next book. Or would that be too reasonable?
Anyway, this book was WILD and I have no idea what I thought about it except that I'm very grateful that I do not see images in my mind of things. It was compelling, although whether like the smell of freshly baked bread or like a grappling hook to the shoulder is debatable.

Getting the books off my tbr like a person who didn't just add 20 books to her tbr last week.

Anyway - I'd tried this one on audio and it didn't work (epic fantasy is so hit or miss with me when it comes to audio), but now that I could read it, I really enjoyed it.
It's got dragons and politics so the ASOIAF comparison is somewhat inevitable, but Winter's book is much more interested in how the personal becomes political rather than how the political...stays political. 
Is there "brutalist epic fantasy" as a genre? Like not about realism, but it reminds me of R.F. Kuang's series as well - the stories of how battles break protagonists and myths shatter.
Anyway, it was good and I'm reasonably sure the next one is already out.

I really enjoyed the main trilogy in this series so going back and revisiting the secondary characters was very fun. 
I think Ashok’s story was my favorite, but is was nice to spend time with all of them. 

This book is exactly as beautiful and painful as everyone says. I’m just late to the game. 
I’d hate to have to like actually review it - the nice thing about this is that I can just say “there’s nothing I can say about the book that Coates doesn’t say better in the book so just go read him.”

Okay, the amount of sheer “what is this even!?” in this book was…impressive, often in a good way and sometimes in a “but WHY” way. 
I just don’t have that much to say about it. I liked it fine, but it also didn’t stand out all that much. I mean, beyond that the cannibalism.