Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Took Me Out of My Comfort Zone (And Helped Me Find New Ones)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now being hosted by The Artsy Reader. This week's topic is Books I Enjoyed That Are Outside of My Comfort Zone, but I've modified it slightly to "books that took me out of my comfort zone but I didn't necessarily enjoy." Comfort …

Review: All the Bad Apples – Smoky with Old Magic

  Title: All the Bad Apples Author: Moïra Fowley-Doyle Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books Release Date: August 1st, 2019 (UK); August 27th (NA) Genre(s): YA Contemporary, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction Subjects and Themes: Family, Women's Rights, LGBTQIAP+ (lesbian mc, queer side characters) Page Count: 319 (hardback) Rating: 8.5/10     CW: Rape, homophobia, and a myriad …

Blog Tour Review: Rotherweird – Plenty of Weird, Not a Lot of Enjoyment

Title: Rotherweird Author: Andrew Caldecott Publisher: Quercus (US) Release Date: June 9th, 2019 Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Fantasy Subjects and Themes: Alternate History Page Count: 456 (hardback) Rating: DNF @ ~50%         1558: Twelve children, gifted far beyond their years, are banished by their Tudor queen to the town of Rotherweird. Some say …

Monday Chatter: Pride Parade and Death By TBR

(Pride Parade and Death By TBR performing at your nearest city. Get your tickets now!) A bit of a late post today because we had our Pride Parade here in Vancouver yesterday and I stayed out really late walking, eating, melting, and dancing--not necessarily in that order. There were some controversies surrounding the parade this …

Review: The Binding – Sweetly Flawed and Somewhat Forgettable

Title: The Binding Author: Bridget Collins Publisher: HarperCollins UK Release Date: January 7th, 2019 Genre(s): Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance Subjects and Themes: LGBTQIAP+, Memories Page Count: 448 (hardback) Rating: 7.0/10     Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, …

Monday Chatter: Why You Should Watch Elite (Oh and Uh, Books)

So last week I was searching for reference photos of leather jackets and came across an article that talked about how a Netflix show called Elite was a queer sleeper hit. So I was like, "Sure. Why not" and put the jacket-searching on hold to binge through the entire season. And now I'm utterly obsessed. …

Monday Chatter: A Birthday of a Sort (And Books)

I missed posting last Monday because I got super sick during the weekend and didn't really have the energy to blog for the rest of the week. Luckily I had multiple (*gasp*) posts scheduled that week, which was a first for me. So that was pretty heady. I don't know how you people have posts …

OMG That Song Tag

Aurora tagged me for this a lifetime ago (thank you!) and it's been two lifetimes since I've posted a tag, so I figured this would be a good place to start!   [MY JAM] A song you have to listen to no matter how many times you’ve heard it Rachel Platten's Stand by You because …

Monday Chatter (Books, Games & Life) – Rain! Glorious Rain! | Viva la Revolución

Hey guys! I'm a tad late on this one so it's gonna be a bit short. The weather's gone from "I'm sorry, WHY is it 23 degrees in the middle of March???" to a nice, comfortable, predictable "10-15 and raining" which I'm pretty happy about because that makes it the perfect weather for rainy-pier watching. …

Monday Books & Games – Broken Hearts and a Romp Through Sengoku Japan

I've seen Sionna (Books in Her Eyes) and Lisa (Way Too Fantasy) doing Monday updates forever now, talking the books they have lined up for the current week, and I was always on the sidelines going, "Huh, I should join them someday." Well, someday is now, apparently, and as my creatively-lacking title suggests, I'm expanding …