3.5⭐️

Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - History of Magic: a book featuring witches/wizards (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)

The Glass Magician was much better than The Paper Magician (although still kit fantastic to be honest). The romance still disturbs me a whole lot, and I’d hoped the love interest would have maybe been more responsible and put a stop to it before things got inappropriate. But alas no such luck. The plot was so much more interesting than the first one, and I especially liked that plot twist at the end. I’m not entirely sure where this series is going to go, but I wouldn’t be mad if Ceony ended up becoming a villain after discovering what she did

4.5★

Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Divination: use a random number generator on your TBR (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)

What a beautiful collection! I really enjoyed this, I'm so glad I finally got the chance to read it! Like all short story collections, there were of course a few that I liked less than others. But amazingly there wasn't a single one that I outright disliked. Even when the stories weren't that interesting to me, the writing was still so beautiful that I didn't mind reading it.

My favourites in this collection were Olivia's Table by Alyssa Wong, Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia, and The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon. These stories really stood out to me, The Crimson Cloak even made me tear up a bit.

My least favourites were Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee, and The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliette de Bodard. And with that said, as mentioned above, the writing was still so stunning that I still enjoyed reading them, even though the actually stories didn't quite capture me.

Just a really fantastic collection, there really isn't anything else that I could say about it. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a lover of fairytales

3.5⭐️

Read for Medieval-A-Thon: pet companions, chicken


Trigger warnings for this book include attempted suicide, sexual assault, and sexual assault against a minor

It’s 7 in the morning, I stayed up all night reading this, and I’m so very conflicted for a rating. The first half of this book was so genuinely terrifying that I actually couldn’t sleep and had to stay up to keep reading. And then the last half, or slightly less than half probably, and things didn’t necessarily go downhill, but they definitely slowed down and included some things that I was really not expecting and did not want to be reading. Without giving spoilers, I didn’t think certain plot points were necessary and were more just for shock value and is the reason I can’t decide on a rating. So I’ll come back to this after I’ve actually gotten some sleep and make a decision then. Good fucking night

First read: March 2013. ★★★★

I didn't like it as much as the others, but the ending was perfect!

Second read: May 2020. ★★★★★

Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book that has yellowed over time


Of all the terrible heartbreaks that happen throughout this entire series, of course it was the fucking cat that broke me. I'm not even a little bit surprised lmfao

My god I loved this. I'm so so glad that I decided to re-read this series, and completely surprised that I loved it even more now than I did when I was 15/16. This was such an interesting story, and I was weirdly invested in the characters despite the writing of them to be pretty simplistic. Reading this again as an adult who has refined my reading tastes over the years, I can see now that from a technical standpoint these books aren't phenomenal by any means. From the start of the first book you pretty much where things are going and have a rough idea of how they will eventually end. And while it wasn't entirely certain, you have some degree of confidence over who will still be alive by the end of it. But regardless this story is still so gripping, still kept me biting my nails and on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was coming. So despite the lack of technical finesse, this series is still a huge success for me almost a decade after reading it the first time. I'm so unbelievably hyped for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes now!

Read for Tome Topple Round 11: the tome that has been on your TBR the longest + tome from a series

I -

I loved this?

So much??

No one is as shocked as I am that I loved a Shadowhunter book again but here we are!

If you know me then you probably know that over the last several years I have very much fallen out of love with the world of the Shadowhunters, and Cassandra Clare in general. But I keep reading this books for three reasons; I'm apparently a masochist, I've dedicated so much time and money to this world that I'm determined to read all of it, and most importantly because I keep waiting for one of them to give me the same feelings I had when I first got into this series almost a decade ago. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy actually, and very surprisingly, did that. I had been avoiding this book for four years, just kept putting it off, but I'm so glad that I finally read this. And it flew by! I read this in three or four sittings? I was invested in all the side characters, in the small plots of each story but also the bigger plot taking place throughout all of them. This was just a really well done collection, and I especially loved getting to know more characters who weren't just the same few that we've been reading about over and over again for years. And this also made me unbelievably excited to read Chain of Gold, which I've also been dreading for years but no longer

Anyways, at this point I'm just rambling. But point of the matter is, I really enjoyed this book, I'm very glad that I read it, and I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now because THAT ENDING THOUGH WTF

Yes. YES. A HUNDRED TIMES YES The Scorpio Races is everything that I wanted it to be while also being not at all what I expected. I don’t really know what I thought this was going to be about but I’m so pleasantly surprised

The action!

The lowkey romance!!

The family dynamics!!!

The atmosphere!!!!

EVERYTHING IS AMAZING

I’m still in the process of drying the tears off my face from that ending

The one reason that this is not a 5 star read is because I found the beginning to be pretty slow. I ended up switching to the audiobook around page 70, which I think was a good choice for me

I absolutely loved this! It was a really cute, easy read and I really liked all of the characters. Although to be honest, I can’t decide if I liked the book better or the movie. I felt the movie was more real in the sense of how the characters act (what 17 year old says “freaking” and “what the heck” that often?) but the book was more real in terms of plot (as cute as the Ferris wheel scene was, it’s probably not the way most kids are going to get together. The way it happened in the book was a lot more realistic). Either way, both book and movie are great and I highly recommend both! Support more gay narratives!!

Also, I would like to take a moment to appreciate all the fantastic one-liners in this book. Some of my favourites include “le fuck,” “‘you kind of type how you talk’ ‘no freaking way!’”

And my ultimate favourite “I’m just so sick of straight people who can’t get their shit together” relatable content right there

Read for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon - Astronomy: read a book mostly at night (see my O.W.L.s TBR video here)

Yikes. Ohhh boy

This started off SO GOOD and went downhill SO FAST

Full review to come, might make a rant review on BookTube, we'll see what happens

Wow this was something

UPDATE here's my rant review video

Read for Medieval-a-thon: weapons, bow/arrow - read a romance


This is definitely on the lower end of 4, not quite 3.5 but not a full 4 either

Full review to come!

Read for Medieval-A-Thon: wardrobe, a book under 300 pages