I started this book back in spring and just couldn't get into it properly after a couple of chapters. I still wanted to read it because of how a few of my friends raved about this trilogy, so I put it aside, figuring maybe I'd be able to get into it when I was in a better mental state. Then I tried continuing it this summer. Again, I quickly lost interest. But I still kinda wanted to read it, especially since one of those friends I've mentioned told me it starts slowly but is hard to put down later. So recently, when I was searching for something on my TBR that would fit more than one prompt from all those readathons I'm still hoping to finish, I stumbled upon The Bear and the Nightingale and decided to give it one last chance.

 Verdict: Sometimes, tastes differ. I finished the book out of sheer stubbornness.

I won't call it a bad book by any means. In fact, this novel has one undisputable merit: the setting. I'm normally very hesitant to read books based on Russian folklore written by non-Russian authors. I don't know what it is about our folklore and culture that possesses so many Western authors to get it wrong all the time (Leigh Bardugo, I admire you greatly, but everything Russia-inspired about Grishaverse? No. Seriously. Just no.)  Katherine Arden, for a change, got it exactly right. At times, I was almost certain I was reading an English translation of a Russian book. The feel, the details, the overall vibes of our fairytales, it's all there. The setting by far was my favorite part of the book; it's what fueled my stubbornness.

But the setting can't carry a story alone, and everything else was sadly not quite to my taste. Or rather, I had a feeling I've read it all before, with better, twistier, more compelling execution. Some of the characters were likeable enough, but very... I don't know, typical? The central theme, new religion vs old gods, also brought nothing new to the table, other than the fact that it was interpreted through Russian history and fairytales. I've read better, twistier, more compelling renditions. And the pacing was just annoyingly slow for most of the book. The action only picked up in the final part, somewhere around 70% mark or so, and that was the most enjoyable part to read. But the first ~70% felt like a sloggy build-up. Some things happened, and some people talked or didn't talk when they should have, and there were nice domovois and rusalkas, but really, all of that could have been compressed to Act I. Of course, I guess then the book would have been more of a novella, because the interesting events in the final part didn't feel rushed or anything. Maybe it should have been a novella.

So, really: not a bad book, albeit somewhat too slow-moving. Just not to my taste. Can and will still recommend it for the setting alone, though: REALLY great job there. <3

 Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: "&" in the Title
- Mythothon3: From a Trilogy

There are books that I love so, so much that I want to talk about them to everyone I know in great detail, except when I try to put my thoughts and feelings into words all that comes out is incoherent rambling. This is one of those books.

This is my second time reading In Other Lands, and I love it even more now than I did a few years ago. It's perfect, really. It's my favorite reconstruction of "portal fantasy with kids," on part with Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children (I can have two favorites, right?). It's also clearly in big part a response to Harry Potter in some ways, fixing all the things I felt dissatisfied or annoyed with back when I read HP.

The story portrays the effects of growing up in the middle of the war consistently and logically, while also focusing on the things that exist beside or in spite of all the battles going on. It doesn't shy away from letting the teenagers lead typical messy teenage lives: yes, there are school plays and classes and a war to be fought and stopped and treaties to go over and many other things, but that doesn't take the focus of figuring oneself out and getting into romantic messes and having hearts broken and mended. These things all exist at the same time, adding to each other. There are teens being teens, completely self-obsessed even when they're being super generous and heroic, until they start growing up and admitting mistakes and talking their ways through surprisingly logical misunderstandings that shaped their relationships.

There's peculiarly little magic in this magical land, but there are mermaids and elves and harpies, and there's plenty of opportunities to create your own wonders.

There's Elliot, one of the best characters I've ever met: a total bisexual disaster, believing himself to be utterly unloveable, always on the defensive even (especially?) against good things, caring so fiercely about others and hiding it so well sometimes, caring so much about stopping the war even as he's delegated to the role of the sidekick, about changing the world to the better. Messing up so badly time and time again, but then admitting mistakes and striving to make the best choices even when it hurts. I love Elliot. I hope he's very happy in the future that starts as the book ends.

I could ramble for hours and hours; there's so much more I want to say, but I feel it's only going to get even LESS coherent from here. So. Just. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Please read it.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: Standalone
- CoffeeReadathon: Sassy/Fiery Charater
- Mythothon3: Serious Squad Goals
- Demonathon: Middle Grade (kinda cheating on my part, since only the first part of the book may qualify as middle grade, and then it goes firmly into YA/coming of age territory, but there's less than a week of September left and I want to feel like I'm making readathon progress :D)

I have read and enjoyed several other books by Juliet Marillier, but I've been putting this one off for ages because friends warned me there's rape as a major part of the character arc here. It's a triggering subject for me. I don't automatically discard books that deal with the matter, especially if they deal with it respectfully, but I do need to be prepared to read them. Which is why I've waited awhile to read this novel.

This was a pretty heavy read, and not just because of the subject mentioned above. While this is a fairy tale retelling that carries a lot of hope in it, the story goes into a lot of dark places and culminates in a highly bittersweet ending. I greatly admired the protagonist: her willpower, her determination, her quiet strength. I don't think I liked many of the other characters who surround her, so, probably with the exception of Red, Ben, and Lady Anne. The story itself is beautifully told, the historical fantasy setting vividly painted (no one does fairies like Juliet Marillier, I'm convinced), other stories woven into the fabric of the narrative as the characters tell legends to each other, or retell pieces of their own lives as stories and compare the events they go through to patterns from tales.

The tight bonds the heroine has with her brothers are well-explored, not only in the sense of there obviously being a strong familiar love connecting the group of them, but also in the sense that no matter how much they all love and treasure each other and to what great lengths they're willing to go for each other, there's still subtle conflict. Sorcha sacrifices everything to save her brothers, and she has their obvious gratitude, but, without going into too much spoilery detail, there are still two moments in the book where she acknowledges that, with all their love for her, they treat her as a part of their narrative, and more moments where she doesn't acknowledge it but it still happens. That's interesting and realistic and makes everyone more alive, but it's also sometimes hard to read about. But this is the case  where "hard to read" actually equals "very well-written," with the way the author draws you in and makes you feel for these characters.

The one small flaw the story had for me was a certain side character who appeared late in the plot and largely turned the tide of events in the heroine's favor. Maybe it's just me, but his timely appearance in the story felt a bit coincidental, and if the character's presence in the storyspace was at least hinted at somewhere around midpoint-ish and he didn't just spring into being when he was needed for the plot to keep going where it's been headed all along, it would have felt more natural.

Overall, this was an engrossing and beautiful read that makes me want to immediately reach for something light and fluffy as a palate cleanser.

 Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- Mythothon3: Animal on the Cover (there's a swan on the cover of the edition I have, and biologically speaking, birds are animals!:))
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: Retelling
- Demonathon: Intense Love or Friendship

Reading this novella for me was much like every other experience I had with this author's books: I started out not caring much about the romance, but growing more and more invested into both leads as their own separate people, as well as the fates of people who surround them. The sort of slice-of-life aspect and Lydia's personal journey toward accepting the present aftereffects of her past trauma were what held my interest up until almost the end. And then that moment came that most romances have—the one where the leads separate and it isn't clear if they can truly be together, even though you know you're promised a happy ever after by virtue of genre—and I suddenly became aware of how much I ship this couple and want them to work it out.

Few writers do character arcs so well as Courtney Milan in my opinion, and I always can count on her to pull me into the corner of the world she paints, making me care for everyone I meet. I really felt for Lydia and loved her amazing relationship with her father. Jonas's journey was also very well done, especially his moral dilemma with his own hoarder father, and his personality grew on me with each chapter. The prose was vivid and engrossing, and all the historical medicine-related details served to make the story somehow more engrossing. A very well-done short romance story that reminded me how much I enjoy this author's works.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- Mythothon3: Already Owned
- Demonathon: Comfort Read
- Monsterthon: Comfort Read

I first read most of the Velveteen stories when the author was publishing them online as she wrote them. Now, thanks to a friend generously lending me the book, I got to re-read the first volume of Velveteen's/Velma's tales in book form, and I loved this journey into the familiar universe. This book is essentially a collection of short stories interwoven by a common narrative thread that becomes more and more obvious and consequential as the story progresses—and it becomes better and better with each installment.

I love books that put a unique spin on a familiar concept, and that's what Seanan McGuire excels in. Despite the genre and tone differences, Vel's story reminds me a lot of the author's famous Wayward Children series. In both narratives, kids have to deal with larger than life challenges, and then they have to deal with the aftermath without any help from those great forces that governed their fates while they needed those kids to save the world. Except where the protagonists of the Wayward Children books are spat back out into the "normal world" and have to adjust somehow, here the MC has to fight tooth and nail to get out of the Super Patriots governing her life.

This is one of the most frighteningly realistic superhero settings I've ever encountered. Sure, there are all kinds of whacky powers here—the MC controls toys, of all things—and the universe is a kitchen sink of weird science and magic, but, like any of McGuire's 'verses, it's filled with realistic, flawed, human people. In this case, it's filled with realistic and (questionably) human capitalists who want to profit off just about everything. Superheroes included. Kid superheroes included in particular, roped into the Junio Super Patriots' ranks as soon as their powers manifest and given just about everything in exchange for giving up their lives: existing to fight evil part of the time and to smile and look pretty for the cameras the rest of the time because it sells merch. Some get lucky and get away when they grow up, but of course the Super Patriots never forget of your existence.

There are two more books in the series; getting them now is all but impossible, especially for an international reader. Still, I very much hope to get my hands on them one day.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- CoffeeReadathon: Unique Plot
- Mythothon3: Female Author

This is one of those times I wish it was customary for all published books to have AO3-style warning. Meanwhile, I suppose I should be more careful about reading reviews before I crack a book open and not trusting first impressions.

This book, at first, gave me the impression of being a fairly hopeful f/f Cinderella retelling. It has a beautiful cover, a blurb that doesn't seem to hint at any particularly dark things, and a nice, fairy-talish start with some vague The Secret Garden vibes that might be just in my head. But once the plot starts unfolding in earnest, after the main character's father dies and her evil stepsister pushes her into the role of the servant, a lot of darkness creeps in. There's basically a lot of rape in this book, and even though there are no particularly graphic scenes and nothing like that happens to the main character herself, there's still... a lot. And yes, there's a supposedly sweet romance here, but it's happening aganst the backdrop of the MC's friends constantly getting raped, the MC being in danger of a similar fate or death and frequently suffering torture, and the LI being very sad it's happening. As a result, what could have perhaps been a sweet love story reads like a very shallow one, based more on a combination of mutual lust and just wanting something good for a change than on the deep real feelings the leads are supposedly experiencing toward each other.

I did enjoy the writing, some of the characters (the cats!), and the worldbuilding, as well as the way the author incorporated bits of lesser known fairytales, such as Scarlet Flower (the Russian version of Beauty and the Beast, essentially), and I might want to check out the rest of the series... after attentively reading the reviews.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: Plant on the Cover
- CoffeeReadathon: Witchy Vibes
- Mythothon3: Beautiful Cover
- Demonathon: Pretty Cover

I don't read short stories often, but sometimes I do get in the mood for them, and this collection of short and sweet queer fairy tales was perfect for one of those times. I admit I found about half of the stories in the book forgettable, but they were still nice while they're lasted and put me in a good mood. The two installments I enjoyed the most are The Last Petal on the Rose by Stephanie Rabig (a loose Beauty and the Beast retelling, very gay, very lovely, with a sweet HEA that put a smile on my face) and Tam Lin by Kathleen Danielson, a queer furry retelling of a well-known legend with some interesting and vaguely creepy ideas. I have a few more books from this series of short stories collections on hand, and I'll be going through them whenever I'm in the mood for something short and sweet.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: LGBTQ+ Rep
- Demonathon: Indulgent Read
- CoffeeReadathon: Less than 750 Rating on GR
- Mythothon3: Featuring the Fae

For me, there's always a certain pressure in reading a super hyped book you've been hearing so much about for months and you know half your friends are in love with. Because—what if I don't like it? There's no real harm in not liking a book everyone else loves, of course. Tastes differ! Except it's a little like standing on the edge of a party, watching everyone having fun without you, wondering why you came.

So, yeah. I was a bit apprehensive when I began reading Gideon the Ninth. Even more so when the first chapter failed to catch my interest. It was just... stuff happening. Fun stuff, mostly, but it didn't really grab me or gave me solid reasons to care. It wasn't until about chapter 5 that I grasped what exactly was going on and realized the book actually had all the makings of the type of story I usually love. It only got better from there: moderately complex politics, a lot of interesting characters, an incredible magic system, a closed confinement murder mystery, snappy prose with lots of cool similes, a complicated enemies-to-allies-to-more relationship at the center of it all... and I still wasn't exactly hooked.  Honestly, it was weird, sitting there reading a book that had all the components of a stellar read, but they never quite clicked together for me. Was it me, or was it the novel?

Then, when I was at least 3/4 in and Harrowhark was opening up in a flood about certain things that hurt, I got it. It wasn't me, and it wasn't the book. It was the main character. Gideon's fun, fierce,  snarky, and provides a good set of eyes to experience the plot through, make no mistake. It's just that she wasn't particularly interesting to me. She's the type of character I used to enjoy a lot some years ago, and to deliberately seek out, and then I guess I got a little tired of the type. I didn't really want to experience the setting or the plot through her eyes. Harrow, though? I totally wanted to know more about Harrow, even back when Gideon still loathed her wholeheartedly and kept doing things in Harrow's absence.

When I got it, in that super Harrow-centric moment that is my favorite part of the whole book except maybe the epilogue, I looked back at what I read, reassessed it through a more Harrow-centric lens, and read on with much more enjoyment, low-key pretending Harrow was the MC. That made the rest of the book so much more engrossing, and it made the ending hurt so much more.

The second book in this series is called Harrow the Ninth and that alone makes me want to read it as soon as possible. Give me more of my broken necromancer. I think it's gonna hurt, but that's to be expected.

Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: First in series
- Demonathon: Featuring the Dead
- CoffeeReadathon: Hyped Book
- Monsterthon: Recced by a Friend
- Mythothon3: Featuring a Rivalry

This was a reread of an old favorite (I honestly can't remember when I read/played this choose-your-adventure story for the first time; maybe shortly after it came out?). In retrospect, it's obvious how different it is from the more modern Choice Of games: pretty basic in terms of plot, quite rocky in terms of pacing. Still, hey, I think it was the first! And it's still really fun. I'll have to maybe replay it again at some point, just to see where that romance plotline could have gone if my dragon didn't cheat at chess. :D Also, how much longer the story would have lasted if not for one  pretty stupid (in hindsight) choice I made in that one fight...