‘The School for Good and Evil’ Book Tag (original)

You may know that I'm pretty obsessed with 'The School for Good and Evil' series by Soman Chainani (omg Book 6 releases in a day) - so why not create a book tag inspired by it? It's spoiler-free so you don't have to have read them to do the tag, though of course it's more …

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Reasons Why I Love ‘Railhead’

Buckle up your space train seatbelts folks, because today I'm going to talk about why I love the 'Railhead' books by Philip Reeve! Genre: Sci-fi The Great Network: the place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains cross the galaxy in a heartbeat. Zen Starling is merely a petty thief, but when a mysterious stranger sends …

Review: ‘Violet Made of Thorns’ (‘Violet Made of Thorns’, #1) by Gina Chen

As the saying goes: every future is earned and no destiny is without blood.[All quotes are from the ARC, subject to change in the final version] Rating: 4/5 paper planes Genre: YA Fantasy; RomancePublication: 26 July 2022Pages: 368 (hardcover) Synopsis: Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the court as Seer with her cleverly …

Review: ‘Not Here to Be Liked’ by Michelle Quach

A girl who seeks a leadership position must be smart, competent, hardworking, attractive, and, above all, nice. She must be all of those things in order to stand a chance against a male opponent, who frequently only has to be some of those things, and sometimes isn't any of them. Rating: 4.5/5 paper planes Genre: …

Review: ‘A Day of Fallen Night’ (‘The Roots of Chaos’, #0) by Samantha Shannon

...to hold the risen fire at bay until the night descends... Rating: 4/5 paper planes Genre: High Fantasy; Dragons; LGBTQIA+Publication: 28 February 2023Pages: 880 (hardcover) Synopsis: Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger …

Review: ‘Never Ever Getting Back Together’ by Sophie Gonzales

The opposite of love isn't hate. Not by a long shot. Hate and love are cousins. Possibly even siblings. So many ballads are sung about the power of love. Not nearly enough time is devoted to the passionate fulfilment only a perfectly matched enemy can bring. Rating: 3/5 paper planes Genre: YA Contemporary; LGBTQ+; Romance; …

First Lines Friday (24th Feb ’23)

Here we go... Her name was Dumai, from an ancient word for a dream that ends too soon. She was born in the last glow of the Sunset Years, when every day poured soft as honey in the city of Antuma. [ID: Yellow text reading 'Curious? Scroll down for the book!' above a white arrow …

Happy New Year! (a collection of BTS birthday art + some life updates)

I hope you've all been well...it's definitely been a while since I posted! Looking back, my last blog post was on the 14th November...it's not long till the 14th of January! I'm sorry to have been so inactive... November was somewhat of a wild month for me - I was having job interviews, selling my …

Review: ‘Soul of the Deep’ (‘Skin of the Sea’, #2) by Natasha Bowen

I think of all my own memories, reclaimed and mine. To know where you came from holds so much power over how you feel about yourself. Rating: 4/5 paper planes Genre: YA historical fantasy; Mermaids; MythologyPublication: 27 Sep 2022Pages: 304 (hardcover) Synopsis: *CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1 'SKIN OF THE SEA'* To save those closest …

Review: ‘The Golden Enclaves’ (‘The Scholomance’, #3) by Naomi Novik

If the garden above was a fairy tale, there was another story being told in this place, one where the children never came home, and smiling wizards drank a soup of bones. Rating: 4.5/5 paper planes Genre: (Upper) YA Fantasy; Magical Boarding SchoolPublication: 27 Sep 2022Pages: 416 (hardcover) Synopsis: (Mild spoilers for the first two …

Review: ‘Medusa’ by Rosie Hewlett

I was beautiful once. I would not recommend it. Rating: 3.75/5 paper planes Genre: Historical fantasy (Greek myth retelling)Publication: April 2021Pages: 204 (paperback) Synopsis: Within the depths of the Underworld the formidable snake-haired Gorgon has finally had enough. Tired of being eternally and unjustly brandished a villain, Medusa has found the courage to face her …

Review: ‘The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester’ by Maya MacGregor

“‘What is it you want, Sam Sylvester? …More than anything, what do you want?'
…‘I want to live,’ I say.” Rating: 3.8/5 paper planes A purple journal, hardback book and phone playing music leaning on a guitar. Around are mini mason jar lights and dried lavender, and the background fabric is dark with small metallic space-themed …